J a N U a R Y 2 0
Published by the American Recorder Society, Vol. XLVIV, No. 1 january 2008 Edition Moeck 2825
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Look at scans of the music, sound samples and order online: Call Toll Free 888-665-2721 WWW.MAGNAMUSIC.COM Nagel: Incantations for the Solar Two New Year Carols Year Celebrate the new year with your 4 deeply satisfying pieces based on group by enjoying The Wassail Song the moods of the seasons. The andAuldLangSyneforSATB/ Winter Solstice Song, Dance for AATB and piano. Score and parts. May Eve, Summer Canticle and Item#LMP0150, $3.75 Rune for Autumns Wind. SAT re- corders. Item#TR00040, $7.25 127(:257+<1(:6 from your friends at Magnamusic Distributors
Hall: Five for Four Morgan: Recorders Five light hearted Scottish Based on Historical quartets for SATB Models recorders In homage to Fred Mor- Item# PRM0223 ~ $16.50 gan, this extraordinarily beautiful 205 page Razz Jazz for Two Soprano Recorders book details the life and work of one of the 5 jazzy duets. Item# PRM0198 ~ $8.95 most skilled recorder makers ever. Tons of Kemps Jig exquisite photographs in a beautiful binding. An excellent jig for NAB/AAB recorders. Item#1MH06406, $69.95 Item# PTYW022 ~ $9.00 Suite Hibernica,forSAT recorders, Item#JR00007 ~ $18.50 Fantasias on traditional Irish songs like Saint Patricks Day, Londonderry Air, The Wearing o the Green, and more Dowland Lite Purcell: How Having trouble assem- Pleasant is this bling a quintet to play Flowery Plain Dowland consorts? Here This chamber cantata are eight of our favorite is Purcell's culmina- Ayres distilled down to tion of several hun- their essence, to be en- dred years of beauti- joyed by three players, ful madrigals and ATB/STB. Texts are included, in case a vocalist arias for AA recorders, soprano and tenor wants to join the fun. TR00062 ~ $3.95! voices and basso continuo. Score and parts. Item# BCMS012 ~ $16.50. Four Playford Dances, for mixed recorders and voices Boisterous revelry and poignant meditation in renaissance Europe care of The York Waits group. 3-5 voices/recorders, Item# PTYW012, $11.50 Thirteen Stars Mendelssohn: 13 wonderful early Andante from tunes from colonial, Symphony No 4 revolutionary, and fed- This Italian symphony eralist America, harmo- is one of his most nized and arranged for popular works, for recorder duet, trio or SSAAATT,B/Gb/Sb Five Fine Scottish quartet with vocals. recorders Item# Songs, for SAT Item# KESUP08, MK03305, $39.95 Item# PRM0224 $19.95 Praetorius: 2 Antiphonal Xmas Chorals, $13.95 SSAT,TTBB, Item# MK03308, $26.95 EDITOR’S ______NOTE ______Volume XLVIV, Number 1 January 2008 hose of us who were able to attend the T2007 Boston Early Music Festival were FEATURES able to hear a talk by Anthony Rowland- The Background to Lully’s Use of Recorder Symbolism. . . 7 Jones, who was also there to receive the by Anthony Rowland-Jones ARS Presidential Special Honor Award. The wheels were set in motion then to share the information in that talk Elementary B–A–G Soprano Recorder Composition on Lully’s use of recorders as an article in Lesson Plan ...... 18 AR. With some revamping by the author to 7 by Laurie Tretter make the spoken word fit the printed page, the article and its illustrations appear here Recorder Rally for Recorder Day! ...... 20 (page 7). by Matthias Maute You may have noticed that a new occasional brief bit of recorder advice, Technique Tip, began to appear several DEPARTMENTS issues back. Tish Berlin wrote a tip for Advertiser Index ...... 40 the September AR, Frances Blaker sent a 26 warm-up idea for November, and other Book Reviews ...... 33 professionals are continuing to offer short Chapters & Consorts ...... 26 solutions to common problems. In this Classified ...... 40 issue, Vicki Boeckman lists fingerings to help you play better in tune (page 32). Compact Disc Reviews ...... 30 Also in this issue, an expanded Education ...... 16 message from ARS President Tish Berlin Music Reviews...... 36 (pages 3 and 5) recounts some reflections 33 she collected after asking people how the On the Cutting Edge...... 24 recorder had affected their lives. You may President’s Message ...... 3 see yourself in their tales. ON THE COVER: With Play-the-Recorder Month Detail from a Q&A ...... 29 vanitas by Simon nearing, you may be looking for music to Renard de Response ...... 6 play. Matthias Maute was commissioned St. André, Tidings ...... 4 to write a piece for ARS members to play Lyon, France during March (page 20). New this year ©2008 Bits and Pieces: Mollenhauer buys Rössler is another feature for Play-the-Recorder Month: a lesson plan for teachers of classroom recorder (page 18), with ideas GAIL NICKLESS, Editor for composing a piece as part of the annual March celebration. (Members who Contributing Editors make classroom visits with their recorders FRANCES BLAKER, Beginners & Technique; TOM BICKLEY, Compact Disc Reviews; CONSTANCE M. PRIMUS, Music Reviews; CAROLYN PESKIN, Q & A may also find ideas here.) The lesson plan TIMOTHY BROEGE, 20th/21st-Century Performance and music files will be posted on the ARS LISA SCHMIDT, Design Consultant web site at
6 American Recorder PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE ______How has the recorder affected your life?
n my work teaching at and directing Learning recorder was just the beginning looking for an instru- I early music workshops, I meet recorder of a life passion: early music, history, art, ment I could progress on players, around the country and the more and more instrument exposure. There with minimal practice world. I am lucky to be able to spend my is so much to learn and I have the rest of my and remembered I had working hours with other people who love life, thanks to the recorder. an almost-40-year-old the recorder and its music. Jan Arkava, Seattle, WA: The bottom pearwood recorder I’d We all enjoy playing with other people, line is that, through learning to play bought for $12.50 while so temporary communities are created [recorder], I have met many people that are in graduate school…. that pick up again year after year when we wonderful and that I enjoy playing and I started lessons…. At return to a workshop. In early November being with. But even more so, I have learned my first meeting we for the past seven years, I have directed an to understand and appreciate the music that played a duet. This was such a delight that I early music Elderhostel in Carmel Valley, I hear every day—and even more important, knew I’d continue with lessons, with the goal CA. As I was pondering a topic for this I learned to love early music. of developing skills and playing music with column at the beginning of the first week others…. Playing with others of course is of the Elderhostel, a colleague pointed out the greatest joy, and now I have a duet buddy that we were surrounded by a wonderful I was pondering a and have gotten up the courage to go to my resource for the column—people with topic for this column ... local recorder society. interesting stories about how the recorder Nancy Cochran, Los Angeles, CA: Most has affected their lives, not to mention a colleague pointed out important: the friends I’ve made and share fascinating life stories. that we were surrounded music with, all over the country and beyond. It was a brilliant idea. A collection of After that, the focused travel to wonderful moving, humorous, and inspiring stories by a wonderful resource places; it stretches my mind (the joy of learn- sits by my side now, thanks to the for the column—people ing and accomplishment, learning new generosity of the Hidden Valley Elder- things about myself); the sheer pleasure of the hostelers. I am grateful to all of them for with interesting stories music—exploring new music and hearing sharing their experiences. I hope you will about how the recorder more as I listen. And enjoying the instru- enjoy reading them, and suspect you ments themselves, exploring all they can do. will find kindred spirits among them. has affected their lives. Sally Gessford, Mammoth Lakes, CA: Wendy Oser, Berkeley, CA: A close A well-known writer recently wrote that his friend is in late-stage pancreatic cancer and Carol Postle, British Columbia: Have biggest regret was not having music lessons. can’t be alone anymore. On my “baby- you ever moved alone to a new city? When I As a child I had very little music until high sitting” stint, I brought my music to retired, I did that. I missed my music. I school, when I was in several choirs and took practice…. As I remembered that I was missed my friends. I joined two choirs, but several years of piano lessons. So I can’t say playing for her, I soared. Afterward she there was still a void. I found, on the internet, my biggest regret is not having music lessons. said, “I don’t know if you were more warmed a recorder ensemble. Because I could play B But it wasn’t until years later, when my up or playing more familiar music, but it was and F , the ensemble let me in! Life has never children were off to college, that music made a whole other sphere.” I said, “I remembered been the same since. I now play in three a grand re-entry into my life. [I was] an I was playing for you.” recorder groups a week. We tell newcomers to empty-nester and newly divorced. My mother, PJ Savage, Oakland, CA: Lacking any our orchestra, “This is not a music class, it’s who had recently taken up the recorder, sat musical training or experience, recorders your life!” Life is good! me down one afternoon, handed me a sopra- came into my life when a neighbor handed me Juanita Davis, Los Angeles, CA: Playing no recorder and taught me how to play the an alto recorder and the Trapp book and said, is a great comfort on lonely trails, a way into scale. I was hooked immediately. “Here, learn this.” While our children had the most amazing music, a circle of delightful Within the year I went to my first recorder music lessons, we struggled together, toot, friends. A woman gave me a plastic workshop and found a friend who would toot, toot. Life happens, kids grow, and the Dolmetsch and a Trapp Family book as I was teach and play with me. She wouldn’t accept recorder fell into the bottom drawer. Thirty going to spend a year in New Guinea with my any money for our weekly sessions, but she years later I began to hear recorders being anthropologist husband. I was 18 and didn’t did say I could teach someone else for free, played seriously and the lyrical recorder even read music. I hardly knew her and don’t and that would be payment enough. And I called to me. Could I ever learn to really play remember her name. I wish I could thank her. have! If anyone wants a free lesson, you can it? I did, thanks to some extremely patient Susan Merrill, Oakland, CA: Playing count on me. and caring teachers. recorder snuck up on me initially. I was Continued on page 5
January 2008 7 TIDINGS ______Where to send Rössler recorders for service, passings of note, ______and EMA Medieval/Renaissance Performance Competition
New for this competition is a $1,000 writing Recorder in the Kodály Classroom Bits & Pieces Audience Prize. Audience members will as a method to help teachers integrate vote for their favorite ensemble at the end recorder instruction into music classes. of the October concert. The owner of Bay Area music store Travel subsidies are available. For A Cheerful Noyse, Phil Robbins, died Performances and Awards details on what to submit for the contest November 5, 2007, in Concord, CA, at The Boston (MA) Early Music Festival or about travel support, contact age 60 of respiratory complications from (BEMF) has earned its second Grammy Maria Coldwell, 206-720-6270 or three strokes last fall. A musical tribute is Nomination for Best Opera Recording
8 American Recorder PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE (cont.)
Kees Onneweer, of Albuquerque, NM, What next? There had to be something Cleveland was certainly a community to appreciates the fact that there is little to no around that my meager talents could tackle. which I belonged, but the question made competitiveness among amateur recorder With husband’s classical guitar in hand, I ap- me realize that music was my community, players, and that there is little criticism proached the local music shop. Sure enough, my home. I don’t even need other people being expressed, whatever one does. the young man was eager to make a buck or to make it complete, but it sure makes life (I hope that he continues to have this two! Did I work at it? You bet. Too long and more fun. experience.) He and his wife, Carolyn every day, until the bursitis elbow and left As a musician, the recorder is the Shaw, took up the recorder when they wrist got bad enough to have to stop. instrument that allows me to speak most retired and have traveled far and wide to The search continued. Bless my sweet eloquently. The joy found in practicing is play it, including a workshop in Armidale, sister, four years my senior: she had a beat-up different, but equal to, the joy found in NSW, Australia. recorder and said, “Take it if you like.” I did performing. I wouldn’t want to do any- Barry Moyer, from Washington, D.C., like, and magically I’ve come full circle, and thing else and feel very lucky to be able to and Mountain View, CA, remembers the my recorders have filled my life with exactly make a living with this instrument. relief the recorder gave him, studying for what I wanted—a simple but challenging As I read through the offerings of our his Ph.D. exams. After hours bent over instrument allowing me to participate in Elderhostel participants, I wondered what books, playing the recorder was just what music-making with other like-minded souls. responses I would get if I asked children he needed to be rejuvenated. Playing recorder is having by far the and young conservatory students. Liz Canfield, Castro Valley, CA: The deepest impact of all my musical encounters. Then I read, in the November AR, Recorder Homecoming! I was five! My first With the help of amazing teachers, I hope to Daphna Mor’s moving description of her recorder ... nothing special about that: stick around to relish the fun for as long as experience with the children in the almost every child in Northern Europe had possible. HIV/AIDS camp in South Africa. That one. No music, just play the tunes by ear. Frances Blaker of Oakland, CA, one of article made me realize how lucky most of Suddenly I’m 10 and am told that the workshop teachers: It’s my expression, us are to have access to instruments, I would now be playing violin or piano. Along the air I breathe. I have to have it. Without the instruction and friends with whom we can with every other girl in school, I did what I instrument that I play, I can’t express make music. Those children, whose lives was told to do (mostly) and enjoyed it. But myself. Also, through the recorder I have are so much harder than mine, were given with no one to push the practicing or met many wonderful people, from many a gift of support and encouragement technique a bit harder, I did learn to play, countries—colleagues, students, audience through Daphna and her colleagues, with but the foundation wasn’t there! members—many of whom have become the assistance from the Yamaha Corpora- Then there were babies! A friend who was friends. tion and many of you who helped fund moving and about to toss an old WWI My own thoughts: When I was in Daphna’s trip. military oboe agreed he might as well toss graduate school in Cleveland, OH, I lived I hope we can help future efforts. I it my way. So the violin went into the closet in an international student co-op. At a wonder what the South African girls and the oboe lessons began. I was 42 (too conference on student co-operative would have to say about their experiences old). I worked hard, and reached my housing in Ann Arbor, MI, we were asked with the recorder? capacity after about five years. to define our community. The co-op in Letitia Berlin, ARS President
January 2008 9 RESPONSE ______From the mailbox, short and suite
A DIFFERENT GOD tell me for certain who the recorder performance of Giulio Cesare. Susan The September 2007 issue, with its maker was—it’s Jean-Luc Boudreau Iadone was playing first recorder and Ben coverage of the Boston Early Music of Rosemere, QC. He says it was taped Harms was playing second. I am sure Festival, carried a review and description in November 2003. your readers would appreciate knowing of the concert by the Royal Wind Music, Gail Nickless who they were. mentioning Erik Bosgraaf’s playing in Mark Lepori, Piermont, NY particular (page 11). Bosgraaf e-mailed I was quite surprised to read the that the program’s title, “The God’s Flute account of my performance at the BEMF A JAZZY COMPLIMENT Heaven,” might more accurately be recorder master class with Paul Leenhouts The [September 2007] issue with the translated not as the well-known “‘Der (AR, September 2007). It was very article of Frances Feldon interviewing Fluyten Lust-hof’ but ‘Der Gooden flattering! Thank you, and the person the trombone/recorder player [Art Fluythemel,’ another edition presented who reported on the event, for all the Baron] is the most stimulating article by Paulus Matthysz in the mid-17th lovely compliments! I’ve ever read and the most meaningful century.” One correction, though: My name is article I’ve read in AR. So I want to Lisa Gay, not Lisa Harper. (I think I just compliment you, Ms. Feldon and Mr. GETTING NAMES CORRECT got mixed up with Margaret Harper, the Baron, for such a wonderful article. After having others describe the episode student who played before me.) Norman Rosenberg, Manassas, VA about making recorders on the show Lisa Gay, Arlington, MA “How Things are Made” (episode 42, on the Discovery Channel, mentioned In the November 2007 issue Anita Responses from our readers are welcomed and briefly in the May 2007 AR), I was Randolfi (“Music In New York City”) may be sent to American Recorder, 7770 South High St., Centennial, CO 80122. happy when a friend taped the show writes that she was too far away to see who Letters may be edited for length and consistency. for me. No one had been able to the recorder players were for the April 13
... are also available at The Early Music Shop of New England, Brookline, MA
10 American Recorder The Background to Lully’s Use of Recorder Symbolism efore the mid-17th century, there is Philidor’s later score of Alcidiane does not by Anthony Rowland-Jones B relatively little music that specifies its mention “flustes” (= recorders) as play- instrumentation. Even then, which part is ing in the Ouverture, but they do appear played by what instrument nearly always later in a shepherds’ Concert Rustique, has to be a matter for conjecture, except confirming that recorders were available at for music for keyboard or plucked instru- the performance and could therefore have ments written in tablature. Title pages of joined in elsewhere. early 17th-century compositions may The librettos (livrets) to Lully’s dramat- specify an instrument, such as a violin, but ic works, which were available to the they often suggest alternatives, such as a audience to help them follow the plot, cornett, or even “for any kind of instru- occasionally refer to instrumentation, ment.” and they also give the names of on-stage If there is an underlay of words, the players, who might be recognized as, for composer clearly had singing in mind, but example, certain members of Lully’s regu- the music would not always have been lar wind group, the Ecurie, which includ- sung, as both vocal and dance composi- ed recorder players. tions (which were often sung) were the Louis XIV’s music librarian, Philidor— main sources of Renaissance instrumental who was also a member of the Ecurie— repertoire. In his publication of chansons compiled scores of the early ballets and of in 1543-44, Pierre Attaingnant actually later music, and Lully’s tragédies lyriques said that they were suitable for all instru- (which we now call operas) written from ments, and suggested which of them were 1673 onwards were published by Ballard. best for recorders, which for flutes, Up to his death in 1687, Lully is likely to and which for either. have checked them before publication. Clefs can indicate instrumentation, These sources increasingly include cues but transposition was common. Choice of for particular instruments where there is a instrumental music for performance special need for them, and there are often The author, a retired university would have depended upon its stylistic corroborating clef changes at these points. administrator, is active as a writer suitability, its range, the occasion at which Recorders (except bass instruments) play and researcher in the field of it was to be played, and who was available from French violin clef with G on the bot- recorder performance and history. and what their capabilities were. And all tom line. It is therefore possible to arrive at He is an Honorary Fellow of this would have been governed by good an understanding of Lully’s orchestration, Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, taste and discrimination. especially his use of recorders, and to and President of the Cambridge Branch Stage directions, and written accounts compile lists. Lully is the first composer of the UK’s Society of Recorder Players. by those present at a special occasion, for whom this is possible in any kind of might refer to instrumentation, particular- systematic way throughout his œuvre. In addition to numerous articles ly if it was lavish as were the intermedii There are problems in making lists, in American Recorder and other played at late 16th-century Florentine however. The first is that, in order to take journals, his work includes weddings. But such information is usually account of the circumstances of each Playing Recorder Sonatas: only in the form of lists of groups of in- occasion—its audience, where it was Interpretation and Technique struments. Claudio Monteverdi, however, held, and the availability of financial (Clarendon Press, 1992) in his Orfeo of 1607, went as far as indi- resources and of musicians—substantial and Recorder Technique cating that two recorders were played changes could have been made over (third edition, Ruxbury somewhere in the pastoral ensemble in several decades from one performance to Publications, 2003). Act II. another. This was especially the case for Yet even in Jean-Baptiste Lully’s time, those that took place after Lully’s death. This article is based on a talk contemporary accounts remain our only An example (during Lully’s lifetime) is given at the Boston (MA) evidence that recorders were played that there is no evidence that recorders Early Music Festival in June 2007, during the Ouverture to Lully’s Alcidiane took part in the music for the first per- when he also received the ARS (1658) and in Robert Cambert’s Pastorale formance of Molière’s Les Fâcheux at Presidential Special Honor Award. d’Issy (1659); François-André Danican Finance Minister Fouquet’s great party for
January 2008 11 Louis XIV, held at Vaux-le-Vicomte during symbolic meanings—even when no prime recorders. Lully called the traverso “flûte August 1671—as a result of which source may actually indicate this. So, d’Allemagne,” and only rarely used it. Fouquet was imprisoned for embezzle- where there are multiple sources of a It is impossible to write about Lully’s ment of public funds; but according to a Lully composition, they are likely to vary. recorder symbolism and its background contemporary newspaper account they A third problem (see captions for Illus. without constructing from the prime avail- played a prominent role in a production 1A and 1B) is that instrumental groups able sources a list of recorder “occasions,” “on the banks of the Marne” in 1678. were referred to by a generic name that is and at the same time examining their con- The second problem is that the wind also the name of their principal instru- texts. Such a list—too long and complex instrumentalists had a certain amount of ment. So the whole bowed string group is to be included here (although a copy of my freedom in deciding which instruments referred to in the scores as “violons,” the tables can be provided to any reader who were best suited to particular occasions, wind group as “hautbois,” and the brass wishes to have one by contacting the edi- especially as to where in the score and to (together with some reed instrument play- tor of AR)—will be published later in what extent they doubled the strings. ers) as “trompettes.” The word “flutes” 2008, with full references, in the journal Recorders could have played along with also had generic connotations, but in the Early Music. These tables show that in his the strings, especially when they conveyed scores can generally be assumed to mean dramatic works, Lully used recorders in 1. The engraver Israel Sylvestre, commissioned by Louis XIV to illustrate the “grand divertisse- ment” Les Plaisirs de l’Ile enchantée held at Versailles over three days in May 1664, by good fortune chose to show for the first night where Lully had in his libretto required that 14 musi- cians (referred to in the score as “Hautbois”) lead on the gods Diana and Pan “with an agreeable harmony of recorders and musettes” (small bagpipes). Both instruments had long been associated with shepherds, and Pan is the god of shepherds. This group is in the center of the engraving. Note the elephants and the dromedary—and the King’s armed guards! In the enlargement it is difficult in the melée to make out exactly which instrument is played by each of the 14 versatile members of the King’s hautbois et musettes de Poitou,
although the man at the right seems to have an old- style recorder. It is unlikely that by 1664 the Hotte- terres would have pro- duced enough instruments in their fin- ished design of the new-style “Baroque” recorder to meet the requirements of this occasion.
12 American Recorder One is left with the New! impression that, while he Affordable and available now! was composing his greatest Rosewood and ABS Kelhorns & Crumhorns works, Lully developed a Soprano in -c’-, Alto in -g-, Alto in -f-, Tenor in -c-, special interest in the Bass in -F- and Great-Bass in -C- recorder’s symbolic See and hear them all in detail on our website: potentialities ... www.susato.com Also new: about 60 places, spread across 12 ballets, Susato Double Reeds Sounding great and lasting long. eight comédies-ballets, and all except one Susato Press Editions for Capped Reeds. of his 15 tragédies lyriques. Most of these Nine is Fine occasions last barely a minute, just 13 Stars Duets, trios and quartets of early American music. enough to make a striking effect. The tables also show that, up to about Our 53rd Year! 1670, the period of the early ballets and Kelischek Workshop for Historical Instruments then the comédies-ballets (with Molière), Lully’s use of recorder symbolism was in 199 Waldroup Road, Brasstown, North Carolina 28902 USA one area only—whereas from 1670 onwards, the period of the tragédies lyriques, he uses most of the uniquely wide range of symbolisms associated with the recorder. He employs no other instru- ment in the same manner. One is left with the impression that, while he was composing his greatest works, Lully developed a special interest in the recorder’s symbolic potentialities, Early Music America Magazine is the quarterly though perhaps it was just simply that publication for the Early Music Community in tragic plots offered a wider range of North America: Professionals, Students, and opportunities. But how did Lully become Audience members. aware of these various symbolic associa- tions of the recorder? Articles on performance practice, trends in the The son of a prosperous Florentine field, recording reviews, and a new book reviews miller who had re-married, Lully was tak- department. en at the age of 13 from a monastic school in Florence—where he had learned to play Call 888-722-5288 or email [email protected] the violin and guitar as well as received a for a FREE sample issue. good classical and religious education— in order to become one of three pages in the household of Mlle. de Montpensier, who wished to improve her Italian. “La Grande Mademoiselle,” as she was known, was the niece of Louis XIII, and her main residence was in the Tuileries Palace in Paris. This building was also then being used as a repository for works of art, such as copies of Greek and Roman sculptures, intended for later placement in royal palaces then in process of construction. The adjoining Louvre had in part recently been re-adorned by Nicolas Poussin, the King’s painter. Like her royal uncle and her cousin Louis XIV after him, Mlle. frequently held musical occasions, mainly singing and dancing, in which her pages would take part, especially in female roles. Likewise,
January 2008 13 she would doubtless take them with her to (both sung and danced) that would also Theocritus and Virgil, and similar later participate in other royal entertainments. often include pastoral elements. Their sources such as Sannazzaro’s Arcadia, in These would be pastorales, or ballets texts were inspired by the Idylls of which pastoral life is idealized as a perfect 2. This is the first Rubens to be purchased by Louis XIV, Shepherds and Shepherdesses in a Rainbow Landscape society, far from (painted c.1630), now at Valenciennes. The shepherd on the left, sitting against a tree, is a recorder player, appropri- court intrigues ately for a pastoral landscape. But Rubens carries his symbolism much further, for the shepherd is derived from and political feud- Virgil’s first Idyll, ing (see Illus. 2 and where Tityrus “makes 3). Arcadian shep- the woods resound to herds mingled his love for Amaryllis.” with courtiers, He plays two recorders, and with super- which produce a natural beings sweet and delectable such as pastoral harmony symbolizing nymphs and gods. love and marriage. But It must have he looks surprised, and been in this way fumbles with crossed that Lully became recorders, representing familiar with a denial of marriage. the role of the For at the far left, a recorder as the satyr, his panpipes at prime musical his belt, urges a woman attribute of forward to respond to shepherds. An what can only be inter- amusing anec- preted as an “amoral” dote, probably an invitation from the 18th-century in- kneeling woman look- vention, tells how ing up at her. As so Lully, having over- often, various recorder heard Mlle. and symbolisms are com- her ladies com- bined in one picture. ment that a plinth in the Tuileries 3. The Concert gardens lacked its champêtre, statue, the next purchased by day posed on the Louis XIV in plinth as a shep- 1671 and now herd with a pipe. in the Louvre, The pipe, prob- was started by ably a recorder the mysterious belonging to painter Mlle.’s musicians, Giorgione, who was needed as the was a skilled only way to show lutenist and prob- that the “statue” ably painted the was intended to be central group of of a shepherd or shepherd and faun (see Illus. 4). courtier who are There is just derived very about enough accurately from documentary evi- Sannazzaro’s dence relating to Arcadia (pub- court entertain- lished in 1604). ments from the After Giorgione’s late Renaissance death in 1510, onwards to show his colleague that the recorder Titian completed remained in use in the picture, France, and it is including the two nymphs; as supernatural beings, they are unseen by the humans. A Titian drawing in the British likely that it was Museum confirms that the pastoral nymph’s slender pipe is intended to represent a recorder; close to her, but in the mainly associated background, there is a shepherd and his flock. The other nymph is of the springs and streams; flowing water is yet with shepherds. another recorder association. This continuity,
14 American Recorder along with other circumstances, probably recorder’s association with shepherds to protected it from the decline it suffered in its love symbolism. Here again there are both Italy and England, where political classical antecedents. One recorder on its turmoil disrupted courtly activities. Dur- own produces soft and sensual sounds, ing the years of Lully’s boyhood in Flo- and its shape associates it with male de- rence, no Italian composer working in his sire, just as the shape of a lute, together own country had produced a single com- with its soft enticing sounds, represents position involving the instrument. Per- female desire and regeneration. Two haps Lully had not even seen a recorder recorders, or recorder and lute, produce before he went to Paris, let alone played beautiful harmony and therefore repre- one. That assumes that we can sent marriage. This symbolism of two believe that anecdote, which says that, pipes can be traced back to a painting from having surprised—perhaps shocked— a fourth-century B.C. original found in a the ladies, he “jumped down and ran copy at Pompeii, and to the seventh-cen- off laughing and playing his pipe.” tury A.D. Roman bowl shown in Illus 5. It is interesting that in his early ballets In English drama of the first half of the Lully does not use the recorder in peasant 17th century, there are at least seven refer- contexts; a Concert Rustique is normally an ences to recorders being used in scenes of oboe band accompanying noisy jollifica- love and marriage. Renaissance artists tion. There is an apparent exception in such as Raphael used recorders in this Alcidiane where the Concert Rustique is a symbolic role, and in Titian’s Three Ages of choir of flustes and “several other instru- Man (1515) they represent a marriage ments,” but in this case they respond to proposal. In his Venus with a Lute-Player, the song of three shepherds and three Titian shows a single recorder in the sen- shepherdesses in an Arcadian setting. In suous left hand of Venus, goddess of love the Ballet des Arts (1663) the scene for the (but not of marriage). Art of Agriculture includes a four-part During the overture to Lully’s Ballet des recorder ritournelle, but agriculture, amours déguisez (1664), recorders play for rather surprisingly, is represented by shep- the entry of Venus; and later in the same herds. Shepherd symbolism is extended to ballet there is a four-part recorder consort associations with the shepherd god Pan, pour les Amours. A Prelude pour l’Amour for as in L’Ile Enchantée (see caption to Illus.1) alto, tenor, basset and great bass recorders 4. A favorite statue to adorn Roman and in the Prologue to Lully’s first tragédie features in Le Triomphe de l’Amour (1681), villa gardens, and later the formal lyrique, Cadmus et Hermione (1673), and in the fine passacaglia near the end of gardens of the Baroque, was a copy of where the followers of Pan play recorders Persée (1682), a recorder trio precedes the Praxitiles’s 4th-century B.C. faun. on stage. entry of L’Amour. Another passacaglia The Athenian sculptor loved order Lully’s Arcadian shepherds and shep- with recorder trio sections in Armide and beauty, and his pastoral faun herdesses are often embroiled in turmoils 1686) leads on to an Air for un Amant is of a handsome youth—with a of unrequited love; but after many com- fortuné. shepherd’s pipe looking very like a plications everything turns out for the best Recorders appear in Acis et Galatée recorder, and a leopard-skin cloak in the end in this sylvan and sunny (1686) when the giant Polyphemus cele- to denote that he is a follower of pastoral Arcadia, perhaps through super- brates his love for Galatea, and they play Bacchus. The copy shown here, from natural intervention. again at length in a later passacaglia lead- the Capitoline Museum in Rome, It is therefore a short step from the ing to a ritornelle in praise of the love of the may have come from the Emperor Hadrian’s villa near Tivoli. The 5. This embossed sculptors sent by Louis XIII to Rome silver dish, now to copy statues for the gardens of the at Nicosia in new royal palaces must surely have Cyprus, was copied this one. As it would then have made during the been stored in the building where early seventh- Lully lodged, he may well have known century Eastern it. Only the pipe denotes that the Roman Empire youth is a shepherd. Was this the based at origin of the trick the young Lully Byzantium, and played on Mlle.’s ladies? represents the marriage of King The David. The har- mony of the two Recorder Magazine pipes symbolizes we invite you to visit the site this marriage. www.recordermail.demon.co.uk
January 2008 15 shepherd Acis, who is saved from the source. This is the story of Mercury and Water is also a subsidiary wrath of Polyphemus by being turned into Argus (see Illus.7) where Mercury, dis- a river. guised as a shepherd, at the bidding of association in Lully’s sleep The association of wind instruments Jupiter—whose wife Juno has turned the scenes, the form of with water, especially flowing water, can nymph Io, desired by Jupiter, into a white again be traced back to Roman times (see heifer—causes the hundred-eyed giant recorder symbolism Illus. 6). It was used on eight occasions in Argus, who keeps guard over Io, to fall Lully’s works, each time with recorders. In asleep in order to rescue her and thwart for which Lully the late Renaissance court entertainment the jealous Juno. The story is one of the Circé (1581), Tritons sang and played best known, and well told, in Ovid’s has become most renowned. recorders and other soft instruments Metamorphoses, and it forms the basis for around a fountain. But, as in the example Lully’s Isis (1677). Most 16th- and from Acis et Galatée mentioned above, and 17th-century pictures of this legend frequently elsewhere, the usage involves a choose to show Mercury lulling Argus to number of symbolisms linked together sleep, usually with a recorder. (see captions to Illus. 2, 3 and 7). For exam- Lully uses recorders in four of his eight ple, in Act IV of Atys (1676), gods of the sleep scenes. The first is in the comedy- rivers, streams and fountains celebrate a ballet Les Amants Magnifiques of 1670. At marriage to the accompaniment of about this time, or perhaps earlier, the recorders, interlinking associations of recorders that Lully had required the the recorder with flowing water, marriage Hotteterre family and others to re-model and the supernatural. (so that the instruments would have a less Water is also a subsidiary association assertive and more refined tone—and in Lully’s sleep scenes, the form of thus match the sounds of the violins of the recorder symbolism for which Lully has time) had been brought to perfection. become most renowned. Sleep scenes oc- Lully must have realized that their sooth- cur regularly in earlier operas. There are ing sounds would be particularly effective three in Cavalli’s Jason, and both he and in a sleep scene. Luigi Rossi included one in the operas Moreover, the use of a new instrument they wrote for Paris as part of Cardinal in a new context would greatly please Mazarin’s failed attempt to induce French the novelty-loving young King. The entire audiences to adopt Italian-style opera, scene was repeated as part which had little or no dance element. But of a later pastiche ballet. In the most none of these earlier instances involved famous “sommeil” of all, Atys sleeps near recorders. some streams, dreaming of love, while a Sleep is the one recorder association in trio is played by six alto recorders (three to Lully’s dramatic music for which there are a part) and a viola (or violas) on the no precedents, although there is one in art bass line. Atys was Louis XIV’s favorite which was so frequently represented that Lully opera. Lully may have derived the idea from that
6. A second-century A.D. mosaic fountain-base from Hadrian’s home town of Italica near Seville shows a Triton playing a curious underwater beaked instrument. Tritons play recorders in Act IV of Lully’s Atys.
16 American Recorder 7. This detail from a drawing, now in the British Museum’s Malcolm Collection, by Lully’s older contemporary Claude Lorrain, shows Mercury disguised as a shepherd lulling Argus to sleep. Not having noticed the dagger behind Most 16th- and Mercury, Argus is now in deep sommeil. 17th-century pictures of this legend choose to show Mercury lulling Argus to sleep, usually with a recorder.
Molière’s words for Lully’s first sleep Minerva, both of them involving scene read: recorders. Be silent, little birds; Sacrifices are part of funeral rites, and Winds, stop your movement; at two occasions in his tragédies Flow gently, brooks and streams, lyriques—both again calling for the use of For Calisto sleeps. recorders—Lully gives careful stage direc- While the prime recorder symbolism is tions to simulate pompes funèbres “in the sleep, Calisto is a shepherdess, her shep- manner of the Ancients.” The first is in herd lovers stand beside her, and there are Alceste (1674) where the recorders have references not only to flowing water but to one of their longest passages of continu- birdsong. In La Grotte de Versailles (1668 ous playing to be found anywhere in and 1685), recorders are used for an echo Lully’s works. The second, a particularly effect and to respond to the song of moving episode, is in Psyché (1678), nightingales. Unlike Handel in Rinaldo where six recorders (three to a part) frame (1711), Lully does not attempt to imitate a lament sung in Italian, as if recalling the birdsong—but he must have known that great laments in Monteverdi’s operas. in Italy and elsewhere (see Illus. 8) caged The association of recorders with the birds, even nightingales, were taught to supernatural and death, although it has a sing using a small narrow-bore flageolet. classical ancestry, is primarily through the In the passacaglia at the end of Armide sound of a consort of recorders, which is recorders respond at the very word both sorrowful and ethereal. It was this “oiseaux.” sound that so transported Samuel Pepys In two of the four sleep scenes with to write in his recorders—in Atys and in Persée—sleep is diary about the wind induced by magic, and in two (Persée and music “when the Isis) the god Mercury is involved. Both the angel comes down” supernatural generally, and Olympian in a 1677 revival gods in particular, are an essential part of of a Jacobean drama, Lully’s libretti. Massinger’s The Virgin The relationship between the humans Martyr. and their gods is expressed in sacrifices, Recorders were which therefore become a frequent occur- used in this context rence in Lully’s tragédies lyriques. The elsewhere in Eliza- presence of wind instruments is a requi- bethan and Jacobean site in Greek and Roman sacrifices, when drama; the players in either an aulos or a pair of small duct- Hamlet had brought flutes were played by the tibicen so that their recorders to play extraneous noises, such as at the slaughter at the death of the 8. Although Richard Meares’s book did not appear until 30 years of the sacrificial victim, did not disturb king. While there was after Lully’s death, the practice of teaching birds to sing with a the prayers of the priest (see Illus. 9). no accompanying mu- flageolet or small recorder was known in 17th-century Italy. Bellérophon (1679) includes a sacrifice at sic to the tragedies of Lully associates recorders particularly with nightingales. Apollo’s oracle, and Thésée has one to Racine and Corneille,
January 2008 17 9. This detail from a bas-relief on a Roman sarcophagus, which had previously decorated the Medici gardens in Florence, illustrates the association of pipes (and later recorders) both with sacrifices and with marriage—symbolisms well-known to the classically-educated Lully. also puzzling— To conclude, it is important to although, as we emphasize two points. The first is that, in have seen, the his recorder symbolism—with the excep- recorder connec- tion of the sleep association—Lully was tions with Venus not an innovator. Indeed as symbolism and with Mercury has to be familiar and understood by an are easily ex- audience, it is difficult to be innovative in plained. Mercury this field. Lully’s genius was that of a is represented on a re-organizer. He took what he found and tarot card with a re-shaped it into something greater— pipe, and so is the and more lasting and influential. Muse Euterpe (see It is very frustrating that we do not Illus.10A and B). know the music of Lully’s French pre- She is the Muse of cursors in the ballet de cour as well as we lyric poetry and is know Lully’s works. Much of the music is often shown with lost, even in later copies by Philidor, and a flute or recorder, our knowledge of which instruments soft instruments played and what they played (even if it had suited to be played appeared in Philidor’s copies) is depend- along with recited ent on sparse accounts and archival or sung words. In material. Isis, four Muses There are, however, enough refer- incidental music was played at perform- form a consort, with Euterpe and Erato ences—spread across the period 1600 ances of the plays of the Spanish Golden playing alto recorders. to 1650—to recorders being played Age, where recorders were used in scenes One decidedly uncharacteristic to be fairly sure that they remained in of the supernatural; some of these plays recorder symbolism must be men- continuous use, probably in pastoral were performed in Paris. tioned—its association with warfare. A contexts since that seems to be how Lully But it will never be certain through battle scene in the fifth Entrée of the Ballet first encountered them. what sources Lully came to associate des muses is accompanied by two recorders But Lully must carry the credit for the recorders with death. Perhaps he saw and a drum; and in Molière’s Monsieur de creation of an opera orchestra, and for them in the vanitas paintings that were Pourceaugnac (1669) four recorders partic- great imagination in what we would now popular in Paris in his time (see cover ipate on stage in an agréable combat dance call instrumentation, especially that for illustration and its description on page 17 sequence. But in Paradise Lost, Satan’s recorders. of this issue). His use of recorders to repre- army marches to the sound of recorders, The second point, which is sent the happy shades in the Elysian Fields and two recorders bicker in Purcell’s song evident from the illustrations to this arti- in Act IV of Proserpine (1680), which sure- “Why should men quarrel?.” In warfare, cle, is that Lully’s recorder symbolism is ly must have been remembered by fifes (with drums) were the usual march- fundamentally derived from classical Christoph Willibald Gluck in his Paris ing and signaling instruments, but precedents. The early decades production of Orfeo ed Euridice (with the high-pitched recorders may occasionally of the long reign of Louis XIV were famous flute solo in its Dance of the Blessed have been used for the same purpose. a Golden Age, a regeneration of the Spirits) is far removed from shepherd sym- 10. Tarot cards were bolism—as are the two pompes funèbres said to be derived occasions and the sacrifices to Apollo and from designs by Minerva in Bellérophon and Thésée. Mantegna. In this Oddly, in classical mythology those set, Mercury is two gods are renowned for despising wind shown playing a pipe instruments. Apollo is only shown in art (it might represent a playing a recorder when he was punished recorder), and hold- by Jupiter for slaying the Cyclops who ing his caduceus. made his armor, when Apollo had to Argus’s head lies spend nine years guarding the cattle of between his feet. The King Admetus (whom we meet in Alceste). cock is a symbol of Yet Lully uses recorders in association watchfulness, the with Apollo on four occasions. Louis XIV lack of which caused was of course Apollo, the Sun King, and Argus’s downfall. this recorder symbolism may have been in In the same set, homage to Lully’s friend and master. Did Euterpe, the Muse Louis perhaps rather enjoy the sound of of lyric poetry, plays recorders? a double pipe. The The association in Phaeton (1683) globe at her feet of tenor recorders with the represents the uni- pre-Olympian Earth-goddess Astrée is versality of music.
18 American Recorder greatness of Rome. There were magnifi- ABOUT THIS ISSUE’S COVER cent but refined buildings—in particular Apologies for the ghoulish subject! Its Versailles and the new Louvre—with appearance is linked to this article, and formal gardens reflecting the order and reflects in art how Lully in his music elegance of Rome, as it was seen there combined different aspects of recorder by France’s great painters Poussin and symbolism. The cover is a detail from a Lorrain. painting by Simon Renard de St. André, Lost in Time Press The 17th-century tragedies of Jean who worked in Paris during Lully’s Racine and Pierre Corneille were thought lifetime—and it uses the recorders’ to equal their classical Greek models— associations both with death and with New works and just as Molière surpassed Terence and love and marriage. arrangements Plautus in the field of comedy, and as Jean The picture is a vanitas still-life, a for recorder ensemble de La Fontaine’s poetic story-telling bore genre particularly favored by Dutch comparison to that of Ovid. Moreover, Calvinists to remind them of the transi- Compositions by they were written in the same quantitative toriness of our existence. The wine glass measures that had been used in the lan- is empty and broken, the music is crum- Frances Blaker guage of Virgil and Horace, the classical pled, and the upper recorder cannot be metrical system retained in French poetry played as it lacks its first finger-hole (the Paul Ashford but in that of no other language. This form device of a broken lute-string, and of one Hendrik de Regt of rhythmic prosody, inherited from the flute missing from a case of flutes, had Romans, was then discerningly emulated been similarly used by Holbein in his and others by Lully’s librettists—and, after much The Ambassadors). Skulls, bubbles, and study of what to him had been a foreign symbols representing the futility of Inquiries: language, carefully set to music by Lully knowledge and artistic endeavor are himself. commonplace in vanitas paintings. Corlu Collier Lully was a key person in this period of While one recorder symbolizes desire PMB 309 French gloire. He despised Baroque man- and sensuality, two recorders side by 2226 N Coast Hwy nerisms—its over-exuberance, and its side—which together make sweet Newport, Oregon 97365 lack of unity and clarity, the antithesis of harmony—convey the idea of marriage. [email protected] classical simplicity and perfection. The But here the recorders are crossed, and word opéra was already in use in France, this means that marriage is not achieved but Lully preferred his dramatic works, so (as shown by the recorders in Raphael’s dependent upon their words, to be called St. Cecilia) or has ended—in this tragédies lyriques. Although it is now picture, by death. The upper, right-hand present-day parlance, he would have been recorder probably represents the man, deeply offended if it had been said that he and the lower, left one, mainly hidden, had composed “Baroque operas.” his deceased wife. With their excellent poetic texts— But we can end on a happy note. The set to music by Lully that is sensitive and wine-stained music is the tenor part (the finely wrought, and utterly French— male part) of a setting by Lassus of and with the added bonus of elegant Ronsard’s chanson Bonjour, mon coeur. dancing, sumptuous costumes, and spec- The man will in due course greet his tacular scene transformations contrived wife in heaven, and the recorders will by brilliantly ingenious stage machinery, again become playable. the greatness of Lully’s operas, which Recorder duets in heaven? What a were so influential in their time but later nice thought! disregarded and undervalued, is now at Anthony Rowland-Jones last in process of again becoming recog- nized. When the new Baroque theatre by the Charles River, opposite downtown Boston, is completed within the next few years, their true glory will once more be revealed. Recorder players should be thankful that, although in duration Lul- ly’s recorder occasions amount only to a small proportion of the whole, these are care-fully calculated special occasions. For the first time in any composer’s mu- sic, Lully used the sounds and meanings of our instruments to the fullest extent.
January 2008 19 ______EDUCATION ______A Recorder Odyssey hen I was an undergraduate archi- uum, but progress was slow until I started tries to the north, Telemann’s sheet music Wtecture student at Miami University to study with teachers who existed outside periodical Der getreue Music-Meister. (OH), the dean used to exclaim (to blank my head. We can refer to the first method book stares), “You could shoot a cannon I recently compiled a list of teachers for a wind instrument, published in 1535 through this quad without hitting any- who have influenced me. It was surpris- by Sylvestro Ganassi. His Opera Intitulata one!” We thought, “What’s so great about ingly long, though I included non- Fontegara gives instructions for playing being crowded? We like having space!” recorder teachers as well. I’ve been the recorder, fingering charts, an illustrat- Later, I understood his meaning, after extremely fortunate, and I hear them ed cover, and plentiful practice material. reading Lewis Mumford’s substantial guiding me as I play the recorder. The pattern for contemporary method tome The City in History: with density After completing my graduate studies books was set. comes most of human achievement, tech- with Eva Lêgene at Indiana University, I Sheet music, too, often provides nology and the arts, through the sharing of spent a year in the Netherlands working specific instructions. Hotteterre’s suites ideas. When we’re off on our own, think- with Han Tol at the Rotterdam Conserva- explain exactly how to perform the ing our own thoughts, we don’t grow. tory. I witnessed firsthand the benefits of agréments, or ornaments—which meant Contact with others allows cross- human density. In the world’s third most something slightly different to Couperin, pollination. We all become enriched. densely-populated country, it is easy to if you check his ornamentation table. Now Lately I’ve been thinking about tech- find others with shared interests. composers using avant-garde techniques nology, and how it applies to human con- Thiera de Clerke was the other blokfluit give explanatory notes with each piece— tact and music education. There’s an old docent at my school. How many universi- or you can consult a book such as Eve adage, “When the student is ready, the ties here have even one recorder professor, O’Kelly’s The Recorder Today. teacher will appear.” Is this true? Not much less two? Each was excellent, but if Thomas Edison froze sound. Like always. books, this preserves music through both If you want to study violin or piano, it’s time and space. Years ago, I kept up a cor- easy to find a teacher nearby. You may even In many places it’s still respondence with a good friend in the be able to have your choice of one with difficult to connect Peace Corps on a tiny South Pacific island. new ideas, more experience, or knowledge I treasure our letters, but hearing the hu- of a specialized area. with other recorder man voice is special. Occasionally friends Despite the recorder’s frequent use in enthusiasts. What can would pass around a tape recorder to send elementary education (which is another you do if you are alone? him comments. The physical tape took six discussion entirely), qualified recorder weeks to get there, but it was worth it. teachers are quite rare. When I first fell in This works with music as well. In the love with the recorder, I lived in small a particular student’s learning style didn’t Suzuki world, when a student completes a towns where I was the only recorderist match the teacher, it was easy to transfer book, a recording is made and sent to a around. I asked a flute teacher for lessons, down the hall. I was also able to observe different teacher to provide constructive but she refused. As a teacher now myself, I lessons and master classes in The Hague, comments on the student’s playing. A understand why she made that decision, Utrecht and Amsterdam, each city just member of the American Recorder Teach- but it was frustrating. I taught myself the a short train ride away. Professional, ers Association worked similarly with a best I could—studying method books, student and amateur recorder concerts long-distance student . The teacher regu- reading articles in AR, attending non- were plentiful. Talk about critical mass! larly received a recording and made sug- recorder concerts, and using technology North America is quite spread out. In gestions. The disadvantage is that the then at hand. most locations, the dean’s imaginary can- teacher can’t see physical problems. I recorded myself playing one line of a non wouldn’t hurt anyone. The ARS mem- Telephones are a vast improvement duet into a cassette machine, then played bership directory and the list of summer over tin cans with a string. When working the other part live. It wasn’t very satisfying. workshops are wonderful resources, but on a contemporary Gerhard Braun piece I sat on the floor with a portable turntable, in many places it’s still difficult to connect in a master class with Marion Verbruggen, listening to Frans Brüggen and David with other recorder enthusiasts. What can I asked, “What does the composer mean Munroe on LPs I’d borrowed from a you do if you are alone? by this?” She answered, “Have you asked library. I loved Schubert’s Fifth Symphony, Let’s start with the visual. Thanks, Mr. him? Why don’t you just call him?” so I would follow along with the record, Gutenberg, for the printing press with E-mail, which just a few years ago playing my plastic tenor recorder on moveable type, which eventually led to would have seemed like science fiction, each instrument’s line in the score—the printed sheet music. We can now commu- combines the best features of text and tele- biggest challenge wasn’t reading different nicate with another person in a different phone. An e-mail discussion group can clefs, it was the frequent page turns! place or time—reading through Petrucci’s function like an ensemble of simultaneous Today, that sounds rather primitive Odhecaton A (500 years old in 2001), or, pen pals, with no wait for the postman. (and lonely). I did my best in my little vac- from a few centuries later and a few coun- This is related to the current zeitgeist of 20 American Recorder distance lesson using an online “chat” While being in my stu- Recently I taught my first function. The student lives two time zones dio is best, online technolo- away. What would Ganassi think of that? gy will open doors (or small long-distance lesson using I’m new to this process and certainly windows) for some teach- an online “chat” function. no expert. Here are the basic technical ers and students. Recorder The student lives two requirements. Both teacher and student lovers in remote areas will need a computer, a video camera, a micro- finally be able to connect time zones away. phone, high-speed Internet connection, with a qualified teacher on a and an instant messaging service. If the regular basis. The technolo- “collective wisdom,” the opposite of the sound quality is not good enough, an gy is new and probably im- Medieval guild system that kept its trade external (rather than built-in) microphone perfect. but with time will surely improve. secrets confined. Wikipedia, for example, may be useful for music. In the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, is an online reference written by ... My instant messaging service allows an astronaut speaks with his daughter at readers. An expert on the tromba marina me to chat with anyone who has either a home via video phone. A few years after can submit an entry on that unique in- “.Mac” account or AOL Instant Messen- 2001, we can use this approach to teach strument. If the entry is out of line, other ger. When we schedule the lesson, we ex- an 800-year-old instrument. Yet a recorder expert readers correct it—not perfect, but change our “screen names.” At the itself is a technological tool: a person with an interesting self-adjusting process. appointed time, each chooses the other’s a pipe made from a hollow reed was “high- A different approach is used by Grove name to connect. tech” to others who could merely sing. We Music Online, in which the standard ref- There are disadvantages. It is like talk- are simply continuing a long tradition of erence book is available by subscription— ing through a small window between using technology to help teach music. less expensive and cumbersome than pur- rooms. I won’t be able to write marks on a Patrick O’Malley earned the Master of chasing a row of heavy books. Also, addi- page, walk around the student or make Music degree in recorder from Indiana Uni- tions and revisions can be made by the hands-on posture adjustments. I like versity, then studied at the Rotterdam Con- publisher at any time. being able to pull reference books or sheet servatory on a Fulbright Fellowship. He per- There is not enough space here to music off my shelves to look at together. forms and teaches workshops across the U.S. cover all the online resources available Once I learn how to use my new and abroad. He teaches at his home studio in to recorderists, and whatever I might scanner/printer, I can send items by Chicago, IL, at the Music Institute of Chica- describe would quickly become outdated. e-mail, but it’s not as simple as being in my go, and at the Suzuki Music School of Lincoln As one example, the Dolmetsch web site studio. Finally, I won’t be able to employ Park. See
January 2008 21 Young Composers/Education Special for Play-the-Recorder Month Elementary B–A–G Soprano Recorder Composition Lesson Plan Lesson Plan by Laurie Tretter My students have music classes three Grade Level: 4 times a week totaling 90 minutes and they At the end of the lesson the students will Laurie Tretter received her Master of Arts have been playing for one school year. I be able to: degree in Educational Administration love this lesson because I can recreate it 1. Explore rhythmic elements when from Lindenwood University. She also and use it over again. There are many great using a nursery rhyme received her Bachelor of Arts in Music with nursery rhymes that children are familiar 2. Work as a class to notate the rhythmic an emphasis in Music Performance and with; therefore I can choose one with sim- elements using B, A and G. Music Education from Lindenwood Univer- ple rhythms, as Wee Willie Winkie, or a sity. She is currently working as an elemen- more difficult rhythm or complex meter. National Music Standards Met: tary music specialist for the Mehlville The children very much enjoyed creat- 2. Performing on instruments, alone and School District in St. Louis, MO. ing their own piece. They took pride in with others, a varied repertoire of Tretter also received her Kodály and Orff their work because they were the com- music. Level I certifications from Webster posers in the process. 4. Composing and arranging music University in St. Louis. A lesson by her is Mrs. Mayrose’s class decided on the within specified guidelines. published in the January/February 2008 title Teaminator, because they felt like they 5. Reading and notating music. Network Section of Plank Road had shown good character by working co- 6. Listening to, analyzing, and Publishing’s Music K-8 Magazine. operatively as a team. describing music. The inspiration for Mrs. Ross’ class 7. Evaluating music and music per- Note: This lesson plan was inspired by an title was the game of dominoes. One formances. Orff lesson created by Brian Crisp, Music student thought that the piece sounded Atelierista and specialist at The College as if it were dominoes falling down. School in St. Louis, MO. He holds degrees We held a very extensive conversation in English and music from Furman and about the piece using musical terminolo- Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He gy. The most satisfying part came when Wee Willie Winkie has studied the Reggio Emilia approach in the students were evaluating the lesson. Wee Willie Winkie runs through the town, Reggio Emilia, Italy. In addition to being A student told me he would like to go Upstairs and downstairs in his nightgown, course director of Orff-Schulwerk Teacher home with the piece and rewrite it. But Tapping at the window, Training at Webster University, Crisp this time he was going to add an “E.” crying through the lock, teaches the University of Kentucky Orff- I knew at that point, I had touched that Are all the children in their beds, Schulwerk Course. He presents workshops student with the power to create his own for now it’s eight o’clock? and conference sessions throughout the music. That sense of musical expression is (A Mother Goose Nursery Rhyme) U.S., Europe and Australia, and is educa- the best gift I could give. tional consultant for MMB Music. Teaminator by Mrs. Mayrose’s Fourth-Grade Class
order &44 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ
4
& œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ
7
& œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ
22 American Recorder Plan of Instruction/ Composing Process 1. Notate the nursery rhyme Wee Willie Dominoes Winkie using quarter notes, eighth by Mrs. Ross’s Fourth-Grade Class notes, and quarter rests. 2. As a class, add a melody line, using order notes B, A and G. 4 œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ œ œ œ 3. Go around the room, in round-robin &4 œ œ œ fashion, and have the students explore the interval sounds of the pitches in order to select. 4 4. Once the composition is complete, introduce computer composing soft- & œ œ œ œ Œœœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ Œ ware and enter the class’s composition into the program. 5. Name the piece of music. 7 6. Learn the piece by measures. First clap the rhythm, while saying the note name. Then say the note name, while & œ œœœ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ doing the fingering on the recorder. Finally, play the measure. Continue until finished learning the song. Then perform the entire piece. 7. Have the students assess their own work by holding a discussion and asking the following questions:
· What do you like about this piece? · If you were to write this piece again, what would you add or take out? · Compare our piece of music to the other class’s; what is similar/what is different? · Try to play the two pieces at the same time.
Provincetown Bookshop Editions “GO FOR NEO-BAROQUE!” Andrew Charlton: Partita Piccola. For 4 Recorders (SATB) [Prelude; Allemande; Courante; Musette— a neo-baroque epitome!] (Score & Parts, PBE-25) ...... $7.95 Andrew Charlton: Suite Moderne. For 3 Recorders (ATB) [Baroque shapes but Hindemithian harmony] (3 Playing-Scores, PBE-44) ...... $9.95 Southwest of Baroque. David Goldstein’s “baroque Suite” on Cowboy Songs. For 2 Recorders (SA) (PBE-2) ...... $3.50 A good source for Recorder & Viol Music of all publishers. The Provincetown Bookshop, Inc. 246 Commercial Street, Provincetown, MA 02657 Tel. (508)487-0964
January 2008 23 Composers/Arrangers Special for Play-the-Recorder Month Play-the- Recorder Rally Recorder Month March is Play-the-Recorder Month (PtRM), and Saturday, March 15, has been designated Recorder Day! Recorder players and ARS chapters for Recorder Day! have observed PtRM for many years by finding creative, fun ways to raise the by Matthias Maute ecorder Rally is for all the recorder profile of the recorder in their own R players that I have met in the U.S. and communities. The ARS will again Canada since I gave my first concert in award prizes for the Most Creative New York in 1992. Since that time, I have Activity, and for the Largest Percent- always enjoyed the many occasions when age Increase in ARS membership in North American friends of the recorder get local chapters. together to play. Start planning now for your own For me, music is like telling a story creative activity to be held during about a journey through time and space. March, and submit an event report by Recorder Rally is a short journey because it April 21 to the ARS office to be eligible doesn’t contain many measures, but I for prizes in the Most Creative Activity hope that it will stimulate all players to feel contest or the most Creative Use of the enthusiastic and excited about being part Recorder Day! music. This year’s piece of our wonderful recorder community. is Recorder Rally, by Matthias Maute. This piece is dedicated to all ARS mem- New this year are two compositions bers and especially to Martha Bixler, who called Dominoes and Teaminator, has played such an important and pivotal written by two fourth-grade classes, to role in the development of the recorder appeal to young students and their movement here. teachers. We offer a music lesson plan Matthias Maute has achieved an interna- for teachers and urge recorder classes tional reputation as one of the finest recorder to compose their own piece for PtRM. and Baroque flute players of his generation Any student compositions composed and as a composer. In 1990, he won First for PtRM will be posted on the ARS Prize in the soloist category at the prestigious web site to showcase your students’ Early Music Competition in Bruges, creativity. Feel free to share it with any Belgium. Maute is artistic director of Ensem- music teachers you know. You will also ble Caprice, for whom he produces ingenious find the compositions, lesson plan and programs. The ensemble has appeared at additional midi files at
24 American Recorder Recorder Rally Matthias Maute
Copyright ©2008 Matthias Maute. All rights reserved. ARS members may make photocopies of this music for their own use.
January 2008 25 Copyright ©2008 Matthias Maute. All rights reserved. ARS members may make photocopies of this music for their own use.
26 American Recorder Order your recorder discs through the ARS CD Club!
The ARS CD Club makes hard-to-find or limited release CDs by ARS members available to ARS members at the special price listed (non-members slightly higher). All CDs are $15 ARS members/$17 Others unless marked otherwise. Two-CD sets are $24 ARS members/$28 Others. Add Shipping and Handling: $2 for one CD, $1 for each additional CD. An updated listing of all available CDs may be found at the ARS web site:
NEW! ____AN EVENING WITH BACH Voices of Music: ____ALLA TURCA: FUX CALDARA BADIA Hanneke van Proosdij, Louis Carslake, Dan Laurin, Matthias Maute & Sophie Larivière, recorders; recorders; also Joanna Blendulf, Elizabeth Monika Mauch, soprano. Vocal music of the church Blumenstock, Rodney Gehrke, Lisa Grodin, ____SENFL accompanied by Ensemble Caprice, plus sonatas Katherine Kyme, Jennifer Lane, Victoria Gunn Pich, (LUDWIG) Farallon and other instrumental pieces. Analekta. Susanne Ryden, William Skeen, David Tayler. Recorder Quartet (Letitia Berlin, Frances Blaker, ____VIVALDI AND THE BAROQUE GYPSIES Voices of Music views Renaissance and Baroque Louise Carslake, Hanneke van Proosdij). 23 lieder, Matthias Maute & Sophie Larivière, recorders; music as centered around fine singing, which shines motets and instrumental works of the German Ensemble Caprice. Gypsy music taken from through on this CD. Transcendent, instantly recog- Renaissance. Uhrovska zbierka, the country now known as nizable instrumentals of Air on a G String and ____STOLEN JEWELS Ensemble Vermillian: Slovakia, plus works by Vivaldi. Bach’s Prelude in G Major (solo theorbo instead of Frances Blaker, recorders; Barbara Blaker ’cello), plus lilting vocal performances—Ryden’s Krumdieck, Elisabeth Reed, Katherine Heater. 17th- weightless soprano on Bist du bei mir, Lane’s rich century German music adapted by Blaker: "I love FEATURED: MATTHIAS MAUTE alto on Es is vollbracht. violin music... so I steal the music and rearrange it ____LES SEPT SAUTS: BAROQUE CHAMBER ____THE FOOD OF LOVE HESPERUS for my own instrument. This attitude and creative MUSIC AT THE STUTTGART COURT. Matthias Early instrumental music of the British Isles, process is very much at home in the ... Baroque.” Maute & Sophie Larivière, recorders & traverso; with works by Byrd, Gibbons & Simpson through Buxtehude Op. 1, Biber, Rosenmuller, Krieger, JM Ensemble Caprice. Charming repertoire by Dowland, Playford & Coprario. Bach. Fafarela Recordings Schwartzkopff, Bodino, Detri. Atma Classique. ____GATHERING: HUI; folk melodies from China ____TASTE OF PORTIQUE L'Ensemble Portique. ____TELEMANN ALLA POLACCA and 17th-century Europe, with crossover collabora- Early and contemporary chamber music— REBEL– Matthias Maute, recorders & traverso– tions among Cléa Galhano, recorder, Belladonna Bach, Telemann Boismortier and others. plays concerti and suites by G.P. Telemann. Dorian. Baroque Quartet, and guest Gao Hong, Chinese ____TELEMANN CHAMBER CANTATAS ____TELEMANN: DUOS POUR FLUTES pipa. Ten Thousand Lakes. Musica Pacifica Five cantatas from Harmonischer Ensemble Caprice. Matthias Maute & Sophie ____I LOVE LUCETTE Hesperus: Scott Reiss, Tina Gottesdienst, two sonatas from Sonatas Corel- Larivière, recorders & transverse flute, Alexander Chancey, Jane Hershey, recorders & other early lisantes. 2003 Chamber Music America/ WQXR Weimann, clavichord. Six Telemann duos & sonatas instruments; Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano; Howard Record Award for best chamber music recordings. alternate with five fantasies for clavichord by Maute. Bass, lute. Charming, bawdy,sentimental music ____TRIO ATLANTICA Lisette Kielson, recorders. ____TELEMANN: MIT FREUDE CANTATES from French Renaissance theatrical tradition. Works by Bach, Telemann, Montéclair, Leclair. ET MUSIQUE INSTRUMENTALE DE GEORG Divisions on Contente Desir, Il Fault Bien Aimer; ____20TH CENTURY MUSIC FOR RECORDER PHILIPP TELEMANN Ensemble Caprice: Matthias good recorder trio work. Koch Int'l. & PIANO Anita Randolfi, recorders; Marcia Eckert, Maute & Marion Verbruggen, recorders; Monika ____MUSICK FYNE PLAYS MUSIC OF THE piano; Douglas Lima, piano; Mary Barto, flute. Mauch, soprano. Cantatas and instrumental music ITALIAN BAROQUE Alison Melville & Colin Original music from the first decade of the 20th of Telemann. ATMA . Savage, recorders; with other members of Musick century through the 1960s composed for recorder ____VIVALDI: SHADES OF RED; Concertos & Fyne (voice, harpsichord, lute/theorbo) & W. M. and piano. Works by Jacob, Bartok, Leigh, others. Sonatas for Recorder & Strings Matthias Maute, Gay, ’cello. 17th & 18th century duos, trio sonatas, ____VIVALDI: LA NOTTE Concerti per strumenti recorders; REBEL. Stylish, high octane readings of arias, diminutions. EBS Records. diversi. Judith Linsenberg, recorder; Musica some of Vivaldi's most beloved pieces, including the ____MY THING IS MY OWN: BAWDY MUSIC OF Pacifica. Award-winning CD, featuring five Vivaldi popular and raucous Concerto alla Rustica, stun- THOMAS D URFEY Tina Chancey, Grant Herreid & concerti, two sonatas. ningly colorful Sonata on La Follia, and four exuber- Scott Reiss, recorders & other early instruments; ____VIVALDI: THE FOUR SEASONS Red Priest: ant recorder concerti. Bridge. Rosa Lamoreaux, soprano. Improvisations on tunes Piers Adams, recorders; "If you think you know the of love, sex & seduction in 18th-century England. Seasons, if you've heard it (or played it) far too often ____NOT MUCH IS WORSE THAN A TROLL to ever want to hear it again–go straight out and buy IN STOCK (Partial listing) Ensemble Polaris: Alison Melville, recorders, this recording.—Early Music Today. Also A. Corelli's ____CORELLI, ARCANGELO: CONCERTI Baroque flute,seljefløyte; also Colin Savage, Christmas Concerto. Red Priest Label 2005 GROSSI OPUS 6 American Bach Soloists, Jeffrey Kirk Elliot, Margaret Gay, Ben Grossman, Terry Re-release of 2003 Dorian recording. Thomas, conductor; Dan Laurin, Hanneke van McKenna, Debashis Sinha. Wide variety of arrange- Proosdij, recorders. "Christmas Concerto" featuring ments and instruments—from squeaky toys to Please indicate above the CDs you wish to unique 1725 London version with solos transcription palimpsests, duo to full ensemble. This CD will order, and print clearly the following: for two recorders, instead of two solo violins, in surprise and delight old and new fans alike. Name ______three of the six concertos. Delos. ____PARTY OF FIVE: A FEAST OF VIVALDI AND Daytime phone: (_____)______CORELLI, ARCANGELO: CONCERTI TELEMANN Blue Baroque Band: Cléa Galhano, Address:______GROSSI OPUS 6 John Daniels, Sonja Lindblad, recorder; Daria Adams, violin; Kathryn Greenbank, City/State/Zip: ______recorders; Peter Sykes, harpsichord. Trio sonata oboe; Layton James, harpsichord; Charles Ullery, Check enclosed for arrangement by Johann Christian Schickhardt. bassoon. Old sounds of recorder and harpsichord _____ single CDs x $____ = $______DOLCE MUSICA: A CONTEMPLATIVE juxtaposed with modern oboe, bassoon and _____ 2-CD sets x $____ = $______JOURNEY Eileen Hadidian, flutes & recorders; violin.Telemann: Concerto in A minor, TWV43:a3 & TOTAL $______Natalie Cox, harps. Celtic, Renaissance & Medieval Trio Sonata in A minor, TWV 42:a4. Vivaldi: Please charge the above amount to my melodies for recorder & flute with Celtic harp. Concerto in D Major, RV94; Concerto in G Minor, MasterCard, Visa or AmEx: Healing Muses. RV107; Concerto in G Minor, RV103. #______DREAMS INSIDE THE AIR TUNNEL ____SACRED AND SECULAR MUSIC FROM Exp. Date: ______Zana Clarke, recorder & composer. “Drawing on the RENAISSANCE GERMANY Ciaramella–Adam & Cardholder’s signature: ______music of the didjeridu & shakuhachi...beautiful & Rotem Gilbert, Doug Millikan, Debra Nagy, Mail to: hypnotic...”—American Recorder. Orpheus Music. recorders, with other winds, shawm, sackbut & ARS, 1129 Ruth Dr., St. Louis, MO 63122-1019 U.S. ____EAST OF THE RIVER Daphna Mor, Nina organ. Medieval & Renaissance sacred music with You may fax a credit card order to 314-966-4649. Stern, recorders; Omer Avital, bass & oud; Uri reconstructions of folksongs & arrangements based NEW! You may now order CDs online using PayPal Sarlin, accordion; Tomer Tzur, percussion. Haunting on contemporary improvisation. at
The use of slurs can be problematic on recorder, and “recorder legato” has become a norm. However, some contem- porary composers do expect the occa- sional use of full slurring in their music. Properly employed, the slur can be highly effective, particularly in unaccompanied pieces. In the lovely solo piece Longing by the late New Jersey composer Olga Gorelli, the long slurs are phrase indications: beneath the slurs the notes require a smooth and gentle articulation— i.e., “recorder legato.” In the opening measures of this piece (above right), note particularly the slur in measures 9-12. On flute, for which the music was originally written, full slurring (complete legato) is effective and quite beautiful. On recorder, the effect of full slurring is less pleasing; smooth and gentle articulation
28 American Recorder In Three Songs for Alto Recorder by David Donaldson (Avondale Press, 1998), the composer’s preface states, “These songs should be played with slurs, not ‘recorder legato’, either as written or ad lib.” In the opening 12 measures of the first song, “The Rufous-sided Towhee” (at right), the slurs are never longer than four notes and have been placed to work well on the recorder. This is a good example of a composer specifying the type of legato desired. New types of editorial markings indicating dif- ferent types of legato are common in con- temporary music, along with signs for special fingerings, articulations, hum- ming, singing, multiphonics, etc. Hans-Martin Linde, in his 1968 Music for a Bird (Edition Schott, 1971) includes a full page of signs for articulation and other playing techniques. Section 3 very gentle articulation to satisfy the com- indications, including written instruc- (below) displays slurs, trills and poser’s instruction of cantabile (singing). tions and employment of the full range tremolos. Only a very few notes are Gently articulating the first two pitches, of notation available today, the easier it separately articulated, the tremolos and and then slurring the following triplet with becomes for recorder players to realize the trills being fully legato in nature. a gentle articulation on the high B, is also full expressive possibilities of the music. In the final section of the work, the ini- effective. Tim Broege
Section 3 of Hans-Martin Linde, Music for a Bird
Final section of Hans-Martin Linde, Music for a Bird
January 2008 29 CHAPTERS & CONSORTS ______Going to ground for early music, ______reflections by the Winds The after- noon culmi- nated with A Renaissance Bestiary per- formed by The Delaware River Consort and The Engel- chor Consort. Viols, recorders, voices and even crumhorns (for the chickens) depicted ani- mals from fleas to pigs. Throughout the afternoon, a steady stream of people moved between the Grounds for Sculpture in Trenton, NJ, Mary Benton regaled the audience with a sculpture gardens and the music, and was once more the venue for the third “tuning” joke (“The Renaissance wouldn’t information on many of the groups was annual Guild for Early Music Festival, have lasted as long if ... you get the idea!”) available in the lobby. This event surely which took place on October 28. as well as information about the instru- fulfilled the mission of the Guild for Early The theme was “Music and Nature”— ments. She, Judy Klotz, Pat Hlafter, Music, to promote historically-informed very appropriate, given that the backdrop Lynn Fergusson and Amy Warren performances of early music. for the musicians was a glass wall through started with two movements from a viol Grounds for Sculpture, which one could see the trees and grasses suite by early 17th-century composer
30 American Recorder Alouette et al is available through the ARS through morning rush hour traffic in Members’ Library, which Shannon edits.) New York City by way of Pete Rose’s The November SBRS meeting, led by Morning Overture. Greta Hryciw, featured another eclectic The Greater Denver (CO) Chapter program—including Cloudberries by the has a couple of projects in the works. The late Jef Raskin (creator of the Macintosh group recently decided to donate its computer and an avid recorder player). music library to the Recorder Music A whimsical piece, it was also effectively Center at Regis University in Denver. used for listening and tuning. They have also instituted a “play it Winds of Southern Wisconsin forward” program in conjunction with (WSW) recently reflected on its history several local music stores. Anyone 14 since it formed in the early 1990s. The years or older who purchases a recorder group has tried different meeting will be referred to the chapter for a free formats over the years, starting with the half-hour lesson with a qualified teacher. usual monthly chapter meeting. Some After a several-year absence, recorder members also organized and participat- maker David Ohannesian returned to ed in multiple Monday night rehearsals lead a Seattle (WA) Recorder Society culminating in a performance of Renais- meeting in December. He discussed the sance to Baroque, with some modern, “care and feeding of recorders,” touching music. Later this group “folded itself” on voicing, the best temperature at into a recorder orchestra with regular which to store instruments, and other performances. There also have been ideas for keeping recorders and their recorderists Letitia Berlin. Frances periodic one-day workshops, giving the players happy. Blaker and Vicki Boeckman (l to r, chapter the opportunity to “try out” new During the SRS November meeting, above), with Mary Springfels (seated in conductors. Peter Seibert led the playing of his own photo) adding the spice of her viola da Like other ARS chapters, WSW is arrangement of Missa de Beata Virgine by gamba expertise, and Dale Taylor (not looking at where it has been in order to Gregor Aichinger. (“It’ll sound better if I shown) providing classes in percussion. chart its future course. An observation get my glasses,” quipped Seibert during For the first time, the Las Cruces from its newsletter is that the “end of tuning.) The Aichinger Mass chant workshop drew a number of viol players monthly meetings may have led to re- melodies may have been adapted from to mingle their timbres with the duced and less frequent input” from its chants in the Ambrosian rites based in recorders for some of the best music ever. members in steering the chapter. Milan, Italy, and used in Augsburg, the In addition to sharing his knowledge Recorder players enjoyed the composer’s home. of percussion, Taylor covered the field of October 21 work- instrument repair, and the Boulder shop sponsored by Early Music Shop brought a tantalizing the Twin Cities range of musical items for sale. Recorder Guild, The South Bay (CA) Recorder Soci- with Cléa Galhano ety (SBRS) was buzzing about their Sep- (conducting, at right) tember meeting, where guest director leading a “Recorder Glen Shannon gave the group a sneek Music Journey of peak at his submission for the Chicago Styles.” Composers Chapter composition competition. Also included everyone played was a fun tango arrangement by from William Byrd to Montréal (QC) composer Tim Walsh, Franz Schubert, with based on a theme from Puccini’s opera the journey also Tosca. (Walsh’s Little Girl Skipping and taking a detour SWEETHEART CHAPTER NEWS FLUTE CO. Chapter newsletter editors and publicity officers should send materials for publication in American Recorder to: Baroque Flutes: our own AR, 7770 South High St., Centennial, CO 80122-3122, “Sweetheart” model
January 2008 31 CHICAGO CHAPTER into a musical family and now lives in El Tafelmusik for seven years, and frequently Cerrito, CA. He learned recorder in third performs on recorder with Scott Paterson 2007 COMPOSITION grade and progressed to the clarinet. He is and János Ungváry. He composes for CONTEST WINNERS a composer and publisher of music for diverse recorder ensembles as well as The Chicago (IL) ARS Chapter has recorder ensembles, editor of the ARS organ, voice, percussion, band and elec- announced the winners of its 2007 com- Members’ Library Editions, and a tronic media. His S-O-S recorder quartet position contest. Tied for first place are well-known performer in the Bay Area. is available as an ARS Members’ Library Jean Boisvert with Berceuse-fantaisie, and Shannon has been a winner in past Edition and his web site
32 American Recorder Q & A ______Customizing a Yamaha Plastic Tenor Recorder
uestion: I bought a Yamaha plastic “I can sell you a bent neck for your alto. This straightens the right wrist, Q tenor recorder (Model YRT-304B) current Yamaha recorder or can bend the which gives some people enough a number of months ago. Although I am neck of yours. There is essentially no flexibility to cover the right-hand holes very happy with the instrument’s tone difference in how the instrument sounds, comfortably. and response, I find it uncomfortable to or in the tuning of the resulting bent-neck “If additional help is needed, I have hold. I have smallish hands and find the tenor when compared to the original Yamaha tenor middle joints with keys right-hand finger spread too large. I also straight-necked version. added on hole #4 (right-hand index feel a strain on my right wrist because finger) and/or hole #3 (left-hand ring my arms are rather short. Can you recom- “Ergonomics: The bent finger). Almost anyone can play these mend a repairperson who will add keys to tenors, as the stretch is fairly easy, even for my recorder and/or alter it in other ways neck allows your right people with small hands and arthritis.” to make it more comfortable? —J. R. G., The prices quoted on Lazar’s web site Carbondale, IL hand to be higher, at are $50 for converting a straight neck to a about the position it bent one and $65 per key for adding keys. nswer: Two names come to mind— For further information, visit ABill Lazar of Lazar’s Early Music would be when you play
R Collins & Williams D Historic Woodwinds 5 White Hollow Road Lakeville, CT 06039 (860) 435-0051 E www.leecollins.com Authorized warranty repairs agent for R Moeck, Mollenhauer, Zen-On, Aura, Lazar’s Early Music Coolsma, and other leading makers (866) 511-2981 [email protected] S www.LazarsEarlyMusic.com All work carries a guarantee of 292 Gibraltar Dr., #108, Sunnyvale, CA 94089 your satisfaction.
January 2008 33 COMPACT DISC REVIEWS ______Van Eyck redux, more from John Turner JACOB VAN EYCK: A WONDER FOR carillon. A note on the recording process ALL THE AGES IN HIS FLUTE AND Certainly the pairing by Beijer explains how that was done. BELL PLAYING, SASKIA COOLEN, General program notes by Van Eyck au- RECORDERS, ARIE ABBENES, CARILLON. of recorder and carillon thority Thiemo Wind guide the listener Globe GLO 5218, 2006. Abt. $15.99 U.S., through the repertory and rationale for 75:50. strikes most of us this particular approach. This remarkable disc arrived after the I recommend this recording not writing of the review of three different sets as amazing: only for the completist collector of all of recordings of Jacob things Van Eyck, but for those among us van Eyck’s Der our instrument is curious about the sound of the carillon Fluyten Lust-hof (see and the repertory shared between our the comprehensive among the most portable, instruments. comparison in the September 2007 AR). while the carillon is OVER THE WATER, JOHN TURNER, This one is a fascinat- RECORDER, WITH MANCHESTER CAMERATA ing recording. Were I reviewing for Ameri- likely the heaviest of ENSEMBLE, PHILIP MCKENZIE, can Carillon magazine, I think I would be CONDUCTOR. Dutton Epoch CDLX quite captivated by Arie Abbenes’s caril- all Western instruments. 7191, 2007. Abt. $18 U.S., 77:09, lon playing. As it is, I’m tempted to ask,
34 American Recorder of his concept of Gebrauchsmusik (“music for use”). It is demanding, yet playable. Arthur Butterworth (not to be con- ARS Membership Enrollment and Renewal I am a new member I am or have been a member fused with English pastoralist George Butterworth) used a popular song from U.S./Canadian Memberships Foreign Memberships the time of Bonnie Prince Charlie (1720- $45 One Year $55 Foreign One Year 1788) within his Reverie, written as a $75 Sustaining (Receive a Hottetere Hands Pin) $100 Two Years memorial for composer Thomas Pitfield $80 Two Years LIFETIME MEMBERSHIP (d. 1999). This work—plus Antony Hop- Single Dual kin’s Suite and Anthony Hedges’s Three Regular Lifetime Member $1,000 (2) $1,500 (4) Miniatures—uses harp with strings very 4 installments of $250 available) effectively. The short sustain of the Loyalty Lifetime Member (1) $ 800 (3) $1,200 (4) plucked string contrasts engagingly with 4 installments of $200 available (1) For members who have maintained membership for five consecutive years. the longer duration of most of the notes in (2) $750 is Tax Deductible the solo recorder parts. (3) $600 is Tax Deductible Dutton has done their customarily (4) Installments available excellent work with the packaging, beauti- ful cd booklet (with helpful notes by Student Memberships Other Memberships (Enclose proof of full time enrollment) $65 One Year Workshop Membership Turner) and good sound. For my taste, the $25 U.S./Canadian One Year $125 One Year Business Membership microphones were placed too close to the $45 U.S./Canadian Two Years recorder. I prefer to hear a recorded image $30 Foreign One Year $5 Additional Charge for Dual Address or Dual Name more like what one hears when attending a live concert. The strings, wind and per- Do not list my name in the ARS Print Directory Do not list my name on the ARS Online Directory cussion sound more like that ensemble Do not release my name for recorder related mailings would sound when heard in person. Do not contact me via email. Moonrise (1999/2004) by Francis Jack- son and Michael Hurd’s Three–Piece Suite My address, telephone and email address are the same as last time. (2004) strike me as less substantial than ______the other works on the disc. Both are Name Phone Number pleasant, but seem to fit a sort of generic ______style of writing for recorder. Three Minia- Address/City/State/Postal Code Email Address tures (2004/5) by Hedges and Cooke’s Divertimento (1959) use familiar turns of Please charge to: (Circle one) VISA/MasterCard/AMEX/Discover melodic writing for recorder in more imag- CC#:______Expiration Date: ______inative harmonic and rhythmic contexts. The two really remarkable works on Signature of cardholder:______this disc are Gordon Crosse’s 1982/88 Watermusic and Elis Pehkonen’s Concerto Clearly Print Name as it appears on Card:______Renew by Mail, Online, By Phone or by Fax “Over the Water.” Several of the other works on this disc sound like pieces writ- Demographic Information ten to fit the recorder. Crosse and Pehko- (optional information collected only to enhance ARS services and provide statistics to grant makers): nen write engaging music for which a recorder is the medium of performance. I am a member of ARS Chapter or Consort______ I am the Chapter Contact
Both were written for Turner. Both works Your age: Under 21 (21-30) (31-40) (41-50) (51-60) 61-70) (71+) allow the strings a role in their own right and not primarily as decorative support Please check all that apply: for the recorder solo. I am a Professional Recorder Performer. I think the Pehkonen deserves inclu- I wish to be included in the list of Recorder Teachers in the ARS Directory and website. sion in the standard recorder concerto I Teach: (circle your choices) repertory. Also connected programmati- Children High School Youth College Students Adults cally with Bonnie Prince Charlie, this Beginner Intermediate Advanced Pre-Professional piece depicts the gathering of clans in the Individuals Children’s Classes Adult Classes Ensembles Suzuki Orff JRS Leader Kodaly first movement and a dramatic battle in the second movement. Bonnie Prince Where I Teach: : (circle your choices) Charlie’s tune is the basis for the third Music Studio Public or private school Community Music School movement, a “nostalgic fantasy.” College Other : ______
In both Watermusic and Over the Water, Phone: 314-966-4082 the soloist plays low as well as high instru- American Recorder Society Fax: 314-966-4649 ments. All around, it is what one hopes to 1129 Ruth Dr. TollFree: 800-491-9588 hear in mainstream 20th-century music St. Louis MO 63122-1019 [email protected] for recorder. www.AmericanRecorder.org Tom Bickley
January 2008 35 American Recorder Society Publications Technique Tip Erich Katz Contemporary Music Series Members Non-Members A Short Tale for Two Basses Suzanne M. Angevine (Level II) (2 scores) $5 $8 Thoughts on listening Dialogue and Dance Cecil Effinger (SATB)(Level II-III) (score & parts) $10 $18 and using your ears Dorian Mood Sally Price (SATB) (Level II) (score & parts) $10 $18 Double Quartet for Recorders Peter Ballinger (Level II-III) (score & parts) $10 $18 Many people who discover the joy of Entrevista Frederic Palmer (SATB) (Level II) (2 scores & 4 recorder parts) $8 $14 playing the recorder start out by pur- Kyrie and Vocalise for Soprano Voice &Recorders Stanley W. Osborn $8 $14 (SATB) (Level II) (2 scores & 4 recorder parts) chasing a method book and embarking Picnic Music Jeffrey Quick (SATB) (Level II) (score & parts) $5 $8 on the delightful journey of teaching Six Short Pieces for Three Recorders edited by Alan Drake $8 $14 (3 scores) Vaclav Nelhybel (AA/TT) (Level II) themselves basic fingerings, note values, Sonatina for Alto Recorder and Piano Anthony Burgess $7 $12 (Level II) (2 scores) etc. Unfortunately, some method books Sonatine for Three Altos Lee Gannon (Level III) (score & parts) $14 $26 have incorrect and rather out-of-tune fin- Suite of Jewish Folk Tunes Erich Katz (S S/A8 A/T) (Level II) (three scores) $10 $18 gerings for many notes. One gets used to Musical Editions from the Members’ Library: these fingerings and accepts the notes ARS members: 1 copy-$3, 2 copies-$4.50, 3-$6, 4-$7.50, 5-$10, 6-$11.50 as being out of tune, or simply doesn’t Non-members (editions over 2 years old): 1 copy-$5, 2 copies-$8.50, 3-$12, 4-$15, 5-$19.50, 6-$23 The ARS is happy to provide photocopied enlargements of any Members’ Library edition at the same prices. know that they are out of tune. Please specify “Members’ Library Enlargement.” Obviously the author of these Arioso and Jazzy Rondo (AB) Carolyn Peskin New Rounds on Old Rhymes (4 var.) Erich Katz Bruckner’s Ave Maria (SSATTBB) Other Quips (ATBB) Stephan Chandler method books considers the out-of-tune Jennifer W. Lehmann, arr. Poinciana Rag (SATB) Laurie G. Alberts fingering easier than the in-tune one, Canon for 4 Basses (BBBB) David P. Ruhl Santa Barbara Suite (SS/AA/T) Erich Katz Dancers (AT) Richard Eastman Sentimental Songs (SATB) David Goldstein, arr. but that is not true. Re-learning the Different Quips (AATB) Stephan Chandler Serie for Two Alto Recorders (AA) Frederic Palmer correct fingering months or years later, Elegy for Recorder Quartet (SATB) Carolyn Peskin Slow Dance with Doubles (2 x SATB) Colin Sterne Elizabethan Delights (SAA/TB) Sonata da Chiesa (SATB) Ann McKinley however, can be quite frustrating. Jennifer W. Lehmann, arr. S-O-S (SATB) Anthony St. Pierre The recorder is a very basic instru- Four Airs from “The Beggar’s Opera” (SATB) Three Bantam Ballads (TB) Ann McKinley Kearney Smith, arr. Three Cleveland Scenes (SAT) Carolyn Peskin ment that relies on the laws of physics to Gloria in Excelsis (TTTB) Robert Cowper Three in Five (AAB) Karl A. Stetson produce pitches. Adding fingers will, in Idyll (ATB) Stan McDaniel Tracings in the Snow in Central Park (SAT) Imitations (AA) Laurie G. Alberts Robert W. Butts most cases, flatten a pitch; raising fingers In Memory of Andrew (ATB) David Goldstein Trios for Recorders (var.) George T. Bachmann or sliding fingers off a hole will sharpen a Lay Your Shadow on the Sundials (TBgB) Triptych (AAT/B) Peter A. Ramsey Terry Winter Owens Two Bach Trios (SAB) William Long, arr. pitch. Below is a short list of the most Little Girl Skipping and Alouette et al (SATBCb) Two Brahms Lieder (SATB) Thomas E. Van Dahm, arr. commonly played out-of-tune notes. Timothy R. Walsh Variations on “Drmeš” (SATB) Martha Bishop Los Pastores (S/AAA/T + perc) Virginia N. Ebinger, arr. Vintage Burgundy (S/AS/ATT) Fingerings apply to “modern” S/T and Jennifer W. Lehmann, arr. A/B instruments with Baroque fingering. ARS Information Booklets: Be willing to experiment—and above ARS members: 1 booklet-$13, 2 booklets-$23, 3-$28, 4-$35, 5-$41, 6-$47, 7-$52 Non-members: 1 booklet-$18, 2 booklets-$33, 3-$44, 4,$55, 5-$66, 6-$76, 7-$86 all, to listen! Use your ears to determine Adding Percussion to Medieval and Improve Your Consort Skills Susan Carduelis what is in tune. Renaissance Music Peggy Monroe Music for Mixed Ensembles Jennifer W. Lehmann American Recorder Music Constance Primus Playing Music for the Dance Louise Austin The Burgundian Court and Its Music Recorder Care Scott Paterson Low F for S/T, or B for A/B: The 7th Judith Whaley, coord. finger must be used. Education Publications O 1 2 3 4 6 7 The ARS Personal Study Program in Thirteen Stages to Help You Improve Your Playing (1996). First copy free to ARS Members (mailed to new members as they join); replacement copies, $3. Guidebook to the ARS Personal Study Program (1996). Material formerly published in the Study Guide G for S/T, or C for A/B: Use the 6th and Study Guide Handbook, plus additional resources. Members, $11; non-members, $20. ARS Music Lists (2002 with 2003 Supplement). Graded list of solos, ensembles, and method books. finger! Use your ears to determine if you Members $9; non-members, $15. need to cover half or the entire hole. Package Deal available only to ARS members: Guidebook and Music Lists/Supplement ordered together, $16. Junior Recorder Society Leader’s Resource Notebook. Ø 1 2 4 5 6/ ARS members, $20; non-members, $40 (updates at reduced rates after initial purchase). $5 Dues for each JRS student member sponsored by an ARS member ($4 each for groups of 10+). High B for S/T, or high E for A/B: The 4th Videos finger is redundant. The 7th finger must Recorder Power! Educational video from the ARS and recorder virtuoso John Tyson. An exciting resource about teaching recorder to young students. ARS members may borrow a copy for one month be used on the half-hole, with exact by sending $5 to the ARS office along with the address to which the tape should be shipped. position on the half-hole varying with Pete Rose Video. Live recording of professional recorderist Pete Rose in a 1992 Amherst Early Music Festival recital. Features Rose performing a variety of music. and an interview of him by ARS member professional John Tyson. recorders and breath pressure. Ø 1 2 5 6 /7 Other Publications Chapter Handbook. A resource on chapter operations for current chapter leaders or those considering forming an ARS chapter. ARS members, $10; non-members, $20 (updates free after initial purchase). One free copy sent to High D for S/T, or high G for A/B: The 7th each ARS chapter with 10 members or more. Consort Handbook. Resource on consort topics such as group interaction, rehearsing, repertoire, performing. finger must be used here, too; exact fin- ARS member prices: CD, $10; hard copy, $20; combo price of CD and hard copy ordered together, $25. ger position on the half-hole varies great- Discography of the Recorder, Vol. I (1989) . Compiled by Scott Paterson and David Lasocki. Discography of the Recorder, Vol. II (1990-1994) . Compiled by Scott Paterson. ly with recorders and breath pressure. Either single volume: ARS members $23; non-members, $28. Ø 1 3 4 6 /7 Both Discography volumes together: ARS members only, $40. American Recorder: Cumulative Index for Vols. I-XXXX. ARS members, $20; non-members, $32. Index Supplement, Vol. XXXIV-XXXX. ARS members, $8; non-members, $14. Vicki Boeckman taught and performed Shipping & Handling Fees in Denmark from 1981-2004. She now Under $10 - add $3; $10-19.99 - add $4; $20-29.99 - add $5; $30-39.99 - add $6; $40-49.99 - add $7. All prices are in U.S. resides in Seattle, WA, where she teaches dollars. For Canadian or foreign postage, pay by credit card and actual postage is charged. Please make checks payable to ARS. VISA/MC/AMEX/Disc also accepted. privately and at the Music Center of the ARS, 1129 Ruth Drive, St. Louis, MO 63122 U.S. Northwest. She teaches workshops all over 800-491-9588 [email protected] the U.S.
36 American Recorder BOOK
______REVIEWS ______More Fun and Games with the Recorder
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following reviews could delight the eyes of children is just as easily be printed under the category of Dotty-do-a-lot, a clown-like creature “Music Reviews,” but appear here as “Book who appears throughout the books to Reviews” because they are related to “Book remind children to articulate with the Reviews” published in the March 2007 AR.. gentler “do” rather than the potentially noisier and harsher sounding “to.” FUN AND GAMES WITH THE Other entertaining illustrations include RECORDER (FOR SOPRANO ONLY), Dotty’s animal companions; children ORIG. PUB. BY GERHARD ENGEL, GUDRUN will especially be delighted by the short HEYENS, KONRAD HÜNTELER AND HANS- dachshund-shaped dog and the MARTIN LINDE, 1990; TRANSL./ADAPTED BY cat whose body zig-zags much like a PETER BOWMAN, 1999. Schott. Tutor Book quarter rest. The illustrations are always 1 ED 12590, 56 pp, $12.95; Tutor Book 2 thematically connected to the material ED 12592, 56 pp, $10.95; Tutor Book 3 being presented. ED 12594, 56 pp, $10.95; Tune Book 1 Early notation in Tutor Book 1 in- ED 12591, 20 pp (pf 12 pp), $7.95; Tune volves rhythm only, and students are not Book 2 ED 12593, 32 pp (pf 19 pp), $7.95; bothered with “this is a crotchet and this Tune Book 3 ED 12595, 36 pp (pf 19 pp), is a minim” until they have had plenty of $7.95. Teacher’s Commentary, by Gudrun practice playing and singing long and Heyens, ED 12596, 27 pp, $10.95. short notes. (Readers should be aware FUN AND GAMES WITH THE ALTO that the first three Tutor books in this RECORDER (FOR SOPRANO AND series use the British system of naming ALTO), ORIG. PUB. BY GUDRUN HEYENS note values, and the final two books use AND GERHARD ENGEL, 1998; TRANSL./ the American system. Students learning ADAPTED BY PETER BOWMAN, 2004. Schott. from these books will need to know both But before going straight on to g', the Tutor Book 1 ED 12703, 80 pp, $12.95; systems.) Almost every recorder method students get some comic relief by experi- Tutor Book 2 ED 12705, 69 pp, $12.95; for beginners must present pieces that menting with bird sounds created by Tune Book 1 ED 12704, 34 pp (pf 12 pp), consist of repetitions of the note b', and using various techniques with the head- $9.95; Tune Book 2 ED 12706, 56 pp this method is no exception. Then, of joint only. (pf 20 pp), $10.95; Teacher’s Commentary, course, there are the pieces that involve Tutor Book 1 is part workbook— ED 12707, 36 pp $19.95 only b' and a'. which is true for all of the Tutor books— ENTIRE SERIES ILLUS. BY JULIE BEECH AND where students have the opportunity to JOHN MINNION. draw various representations of sound. As a complete series, these books These include long and short notes, present a well-planned, carefully shapes of notes, graphic representations of sequenced work of art—both for their out- various sounds such as a cat or a siren, standing presentation of high- bird songs, clefs, bar lines, time signa- quality recorder pedagogy and for their tures, and so forth. Sometimes children artistic appearance. As children are guided Honeysuckle Music learn to play short pieces, and then copy with top-notch teaching and musical se- the notation a couple of pages later. lections, their eyes are Early in the series, students are intro- dazzled by delightful illustrations of the Recorders & accessories duced to enjoyable games to encourage various characters met in the books. ... healthy breathing habits—games such as I will attempt to adequately describe these Music for recorders & viols blowing on a cotton ball, and keeping the books by summarizing some of the cotton within a circle on the table. specifics in each book. Jean Allison Olson Students play two out of three notes of Tutor Book 1 for soprano recorder can 1604 Portland Ave. a triad, and a third student must complete be used with students as young as six St. Paul, MN 55104 the triad. The concept of transposition is years old. It introduces the notes in the fol- 651.644.8545 presented early as students memorize lowing order: b', a', g', e', c'', d''. [email protected] short pieces, and then practice these One of the first illustrations to pieces in different keys. Also, alterations in
January 2008 37 time signatures are presented early, as just printing the notes closer and closer FUN AND GAMES students transform a tune from common together. A piece called “Eaten notes” is FOR ALTO RECORDER time to triple time. missing notes that the student must fill in. Tutor Book 1 also encourages explo- This piece will lead students to instinc- Alto Tutor Book 1 ration of onomatopoetic sounds—a cat’s tively end a piece on the tonic without ever Children who have completed the three meow, and other sounds such as rain, hail, having been bothered with learning about Tutor books for soprano recorder are ready thunderstorms, gentle breezes, and howl- the name or function of that note. to move on to Fun and Games for Alto ing gales. Students explore the musical Recorder, a series that builds upon skills expression of various moods through song Tutor Book 3 already established with soprano. Tutor titles such as “Feeling cross,” “Feeling Assuming that a student began Tutor Book Book 1 is intended for children around the happy,” and “Feeling tired.” 1 as a six-year-old, Tutor Book 3 could be age of 10. Elementary school teachers who use used by children as young as eight years This series continues to develop skills Orff-Schulwerk, Kodály or Dalcroze would old, depending on personal progress. This on the soprano recorder while gradually no doubt approve of these books, as they book covers all of the remaining soprano weaving in use of the alto recorder. There include movement activities to help chil- fingerings for all additional notes in the are only two Tutor books instead of three; dren experience note values with their en- two-octave range between c' and c'''. thus, each book introduces approximately tire bodies as a prelude to the intellectual Note-wise and rhythm-wise, the music half of the notes for the alto. Tutor Book 1 understanding of specific note values. No- becomes quite challenging. Some of the presents alto fingerings in the following tation is approached systematically with increasing complexities include pieces order: g'', f'', e'', d'', c'', c''', a'', a', b', b'', c '', early emphasis upon the notation of rests. using 16th notes (semiquavers), 5/4 b ', b '', d''' and g'. It’s worth noticing that the first duet and meter, dotted rhythms, themes with The process of moving over to the alto first trio of the first Tutor book both have variations, contemporary techniques and begins by learning short stepwise tunes on rhythmic independence in the voices. notation (music by Hans-Martin Linde), soprano, and then playing them on an and Van Eyck variations. For fun, this book alto at the same pitch. Because of this sys- Tutor Book 2 also contains the “Orchestra Song” where tem, the notes on the alto recorder are in- Tutor Book 2 is intended for children all of the parts (violin, clarinet, kettle troduced in a different order from what around the age of seven or eight years of drum, trumpet, horn) are all written out you find them introduced in the soprano age. Students add five more notes in this separately followed by score notation. books. book: c', d', f', e'' and f''. This book contin- Experimentation with sounds contin- After playing a simple tune on both in- ues the all-around education of the total ues as students imitate a ghost’s howl, a struments at the same pitch, students musical child, weaving in the new notes creaking door, and other such sounds in a write the alto notation down themselves. with gradually growing technical “Haunted House” improvisation. In more The short tunes, learned on soprano and demands. Emphasis upon healthy breath- workbook-type exercises, students write played at the same pitch on alto, progress ing continues; there are new exercises all the notes in a song in scale order and from stepwise to those employing narrow helping children take in air sufficient to then mark the half-steps. With Dotty-do- skips. This is, perhaps, the smoothest equal what will actually be needed. a-lot gracing the pages in acrobat fashion, weaving-in of the alto recorder that I have Students are reminded to pay attention there is the very first mention of possibly seen. to intonation with a song called “Duo for using “to” instead of “do” (if necessary, for When “finger gymnastics” are present- good ears,” a duet emphasizing perfect in- high a''). ed, they are notated for both soprano tervals. Children are guided into playing More emphasis on healthy breathing and alto. The authors want the children unisons as if the sounds were coming includes one particularly effective exercise to understand right away the concepts of from one recorder. in which each phrase becomes one beat alto notation at pitch and soprano One of my favorite games from this longer; the first phrase has four beats, and notation sounding an octave higher than book is the “relay race.” Students imagine the final phrase has 15 beats. This pro- written, as indicated by the little 8 on top that a specific note is the baton in a relay vides more practice for matching the of the treble clef. race; they stand in a circle and take turns, amount of inhaled air to the needs of the Early in this book, some of the soprano being careful not to drop the baton by upcoming phrase. parts become quite challenging while the letting silence into the music while pass- This book includes three works by alto parts remain uncomplicated. Simple ing or receiving the note. Linde: “Dance,” an enjoyable piece that duets for two altos appear. Joining the extensive list of Dotty’s explores less frequently played intervals The Teacher’s Commentary is worth the animal companions is a hungry crocodile. such as major sevenths, climbing perfect extra cost for its advice on many aspects of The picture is included to illustrate the fifths, and sudden chromatic alterations; playing and teaching, but it is especially motion of the right hand and the lifting-up and “Thoughtful piece,” employing some good in explaining three methods of of finger 5 while rotating back and forth of the more avant-garde techniques first thumbing: sliding, rolling and pinching between c' and f'. While practicing the practiced in “Haunted House.” The third (ED 12707, pp. 12-13). This method does descending minor third between f' to d', piece, “Little Fantasy,” uses few bar lines not force students into one thumbing the crocodile shuts its mouth and lifts its and places groups of notes in boxes; these method over another; rather, it shows how tail—delightful imagery for kids and boxed notes can be played with free a thumbhole should and should not be adults alike! rhythm and can be repeated ad lib in any opened—emphasizing that both hand The authors reinforce the concept of order. and thumb remain relaxed, and that there gradually speeding up a finger exercise by should be no movement in any other part
38 American Recorder of the hand, wrist or arm. Various listening the head-joint, and finally on one note. games continue, and students create their This is a really clever preparation for As a complete series, own musical scores by combining tradi- vibrato—a chance to be “physically aware tional tunes with sound effects such as of the shapes without bothering too much chatter of guests, sounds from the about intonation” (Teacher’s Commentary, these books present kitchen, spitting out cherry stones, etc. In- p. 28). A series of “wave” exercises builds structions for achieving these special ef- upon the “paintbrush” exercise; students a well-planned, carefully fects are included in the Teacher’s Com- paint sound waves above the given pitch, mentary. then below the given pitch, and, finally, After introducing high and low A for surrounding the given pitch. sequenced work of art. alto, some of the songs become quite chal- Tutor Book 2 presents some fairly diffi- lenging. Three-part music using AAT and cult repertoire: two etudes are reproduced I have reviewed numerous AAB appears, even though instruction in for practicing wide intervals. The first is an reading bass clef does not appear until the etude from F. J. Giesbert’s Developing end of the next Tutor book. Extended Finger and Tongue Technique (Schott recorder methods over the syncopation is taught by walking (or ED 4469), and the second a piece by J. J. clapping) quarter notes while playing the Quantz from Solfeggi. Other composers syncopations. represented include Hook, Telemann, years and honestly can Students also begin serious work with Hotteterre, Demoivre, Braun, Pepusch, trills (including those followed by a two- Gervaise and Leslie Searle. say that these books are note termination) as well as upper and Work with chromatic scales begins, lower mordents. followed by a piece by Heyens called Students continue to create their own “Mosquito Plague” in which three alto at the top of the crop. scores using a blend of avant-garde and recorders play fragments of the chromatic traditional tunes. A piece called “Me and scale in contrary and parallel motion to Tutor Book 1 contains a drawing of a small my friends” contains a suggested list of weave a “carpet of sound” representing child blowing out a candle to demonstrate contemporary building blocks, but the the buzzing of mosquitoes; a lone soprano one of the earliest breathing exercises. students take it from there. They are also recorder plays short little fragments repre- This is a book intended for children as encouraged to create their own programs. senting the stinging. young as six years old, and the dangers of encouraging young children to practice Alto Tutor Book 2 The Five Tune Books with candles are obvious. This picture The final book in this excellent series, Each of the five Tutor Books in this series would not stop me from using these Tutor Book 2 begins serious preparation for is supplemented by music in a Tune Book. books, but I suspect that textbook selec- students to move into Advanced Recorder Selected tunes are nicely coordinated with tion committees might raise their eye- Technique, a two-volume series reviewed new technical demands presented in the brows at the inclusion of this picture. in the March 2007 AR. The remaining fin- Tutor Books. I have reviewed numerous recorder gerings are learned in the following order: These Tune Books are also delightfully methods over the years and honestly can f ', f '', c ''', e '', e ''', f', e''', g ', g '', f''' and g'''. illustrated—but in black and white, so say that these books are at the top of the Several major and minor scales and they can be used as coloring books for crop—and remarkable in so many ways. arpeggios are introduced, all using the youngsters. The first three Tune Books Sue Groskreutz same “model” that will quickly be memo- also contain two pages of stickers repre- rized and easily transposed to new keys as senting the colorful characters that we they become available. This habit of mem- meet in the Tutor Books—the ever-present orizing scale and arpeggio patterns is one Dotty-do-a-lot and her animal entourage. of the cornerstones of Gudrun Heyens’s From the first duet in the first Tune Courtly Music Advanced Recorder Technique. Book, the voices have independent rhyth- At the end of Tutor Book 2, students will mic and contrapuntal interest. Selections Unlimited have a complete working knowledge of include arranged folk music of numerous every note within a two-octave range on cultures, arranged music from well- 800-2-RICHIE soprano and alto recorders. Scales, arpeg- known composers, and lots of original (800 274-2443) gios and short pieces in key signatures up music by the authors as well as other com- to three sharps or flats are presented. posers. There are solos with piano accom- www.courtlymusic.com Being a well-planned method, it intro- paniment, duets, trios, and an occasional duces the low F as one of the last notes, quartet. Contemporary selections include "Everything for the recorder even following low F . This gives smaller music by Leslie Searle, Scott Joplin, and enthusiast, or those who children a maximum chance to make their Hans-Martin Linde. would like to be." way around an alto recorder with mini- Each Tune Book includes a separate mum stretching discomfort. pamphlet with piano accompaniments. Fine wood and plastic recorders, sheet Concern with proper breathing contin- Notes about the composers and about the music, method books, play-along CDs, ues: students imagine that their breath is a pieces are presented at the end. accessories, workshops. paintbrush that forms various shapes, first In this entire collection, only one thing without the instrument, then with only struck me as “not a good idea.” Page 10 of
January 2008 39 MUSIC REVIEWS ______More from Turner’s “The Contemporary Recorder,” ______Ten tenors from Matthias Maute
FOUR SCENES, BY FLORA NATALIE are not difficult, whereas the second come tiring to the ear. Recorder composers WILLSON. Peacock Press PJT 030 movement requires strong control of the use many types of extended techniques (Magnamusic), 2003. A. Sc 4 pp. $9.15. higher register, fast leaps, and a small to create aural variety. Beck, however, by SONATA FOR SOLO TREBLE amount of flutter-tonguing. The musical varying his harmonic and rhythmic treat- RECORDER, BY DAVID BECK. Peacock language of the work relies heavily on ment greatly throughout the movements, Press PJT 031, 2004. A. Sc 12 pp. $14.25. whole-tone and octatonic harmonic creates sufficient interest to keep the piece John Turner’s terrific series “The material. One perhaps wishes that each engaging throughout. Contemporary Recorder” continues with movement were a bit longer (as the ideas There are no extended techniques used two works for unaccompanied alto are interesting enough to support longer besides flutter-tonguing and a few glis- (“treble” in the U.K.). Many of the development). sandi in the last movement. The work is offerings in Turner’s series have been Regardless, it is still an appealing difficult, requiring precise rhythmic con- written by well-known and established work for teaching or recital. It could trol and a command of fast passagework British composers. These two works are be particularly effective in performance if, across the instrument. by composers who are much less-known, before each movement, the relevant Both editions are basically clearly and but both have created worthwhile works paragraph from the Aeneid, were read to readably, if not perhaps ideally, engraved for the instrument. the audience. (containing some “rookie” mistakes made Flora Natalie Willson (b. 1985) is a English composer David Beck in the use of the Sibelius notation soft- young English composer who studied at (b. 1944) has been an active orchestral ware). However, they are clean enough Selwyn College, Cambridge. She was also violist for most of his career, having served for study and performance. a private pupil of Martin Ellerby, a as a member of the Halle Orchestra and Carson Cooman is an active composer composer whose work, in this reviewer’s the BBC Philharmonic. He has written with a catalogue of more than 600 musical opinion, is not nearly as broadly recog- a number of recorder works for Turner, works in many forms, ranging from solo in- nized as it should be. Willson’s Four Scenes including a concerto. strumental pieces to operas, and from from Virgil’s ‘Aeneid’ was written for and This solo sonata is cast in five move- orchestral works to hymn tunes. His work premiered by Turner and consists of four ments, each of which is almost exactly is available on over ten record labels, one-page movements, each depicting a three minutes in length, with the excep- including Naxos and ABC Classics. different scene from the famed Roman tion of the vibrant one-minute “Fanfare” epic. that opens the work. The second move- MOONLIGHT SERENADE, GLENN The first movement takes its inspira- ment, “Dance,” quickly flows along with MILLER, ARR. FOR RECORDER ORCHESTRA tion from dawn over the ocean; the second patterns in asymmetrical meters, roving BY PAUL LEENHOUTS. Moeck Nr. 3304 from Aeneas’s tortured mental state as he through a series of changing modes. (Magnamusic), 2006. SAAATTBGb. tries to come up with a way to leave Queen The third movement, “Interrupted Sc 7 pp, 8 pts 1 p ea. $35. Dido; the third from Dido’s wrathful anger Lullaby,” begins with a barcarolle-like TEN TIMES TENOR, MATTHIAS MAUTE. and curse upon Aeneas’s departure; and figuration that, after a few short depar- Moeck 3301 (Magnamusic), 2004. the fourth from Dido’s journey in death to tures, gives way to a longer interruption of TTTTTTTTTT. Sc 15 pp, 10 pts 2 pp ea. the underworld. nervous, leaping music. The pattern is $39. The two outer movements are lyrical repeated again and the nervous music With the explosion of interest in pieces and of a slow-to-moderate tempo. The winds down to end the movement. for recorder orchestra of late, and with middle two movements are faster and The fourth movement, “Hornpipe,” is recorder orchestras popping up all over more dramatic. The outer two movements the most straightforward harmonically, the globe, Moeck has begun publishing a using almost entirely diatonic ideas in a timely series called Das Blockflöten Orch- KEY: rec=recorder; S’o=sopranino; S=soprano; simple ABA form—a still middle section ester (The Recorder Orchestra). In their A=alto; T=tenor; B=bass; gB=great bass; of quiet tremolos sandwiched between general introduction to each piece in the cB= contra bass; Tr=treble; qrt=quartet; the faster outer sections. series, the publishers state that their pf=piano; fwd=foreword; opt=optional; The final movement, “Incantations,” is objective is to publish “mainly original perc=percussion; pp=pages; sc=score; pt(s)=part(s); kbd=keyboard; bc=basso con- free in rhythm and harmony, painting an works comprising old and new music as tinuo; hc=harpsichord; P&H=postage and evocatively mystical scene and bringing well as arrangements of jazz standards or handling. Multiple reviews by one reviewer are the work to a mysterious conclusion. other favorite classics.” followed by that reviewer’s name. Please submit Lengthy unaccompanied recorder The first piece under review is Paul music for review to: Constance M. Primus, Box 608, 1097 Main St., Georgetown, CO 80444. works are difficult to pull off, because the Leenhouts’s arrangement of Glenn unrelenting solo texture can quickly be- Miller’s theme song, Moonlight Serenade,
40 American Recorder for seven parts–soprano to great bass. This registers, requires considerable dexterity thrilling to perform and to listen to. It is as lovely “big band” piece—which is well with cross-fingerings. (Again in the though the 20 players formed one giant known to just about anyone over a certain interest of full disclosure, I will confess tenor recorder—which gives out with a age, or even under it—lends itself well to a here that I worked out an elaborate mighty sound, that splits and splinters recorder orchestra arrangement. It is not series of cross-fingerings; it was the only itself like The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, then very difficult in any of the parts, and the way I could get through the piece.) The becomes one again (these moments are tune’s familiarity makes it easily accessible group performing it must have excellent very reassuring for the performer), then to any reasonably accomplished group. ensemble sense, as there is almost con- subsides, almost into sleep, then bursts Leenhouts has doubled the melody, stant 16th-note movement throughout. into mighty sound again. The anger is putting it in the soprano and first tenor Although through-composed and a there, but in the end it is controlled. parts throughout this short piece. He has monothematic piece, Ten Times Tenor has Martha Bixler has long been active in the also told each player how to play almost 10 distinct sections. The two longest, one administration and with various commit- every note—putting in dynamics, accent of 22 and one of 24 measures, surround tees of the American Recorder Society. She and articulation marks, trills, grace notes, the mid-point. has been a member of the Board of Directors and even signs for vibrato (actually finger The first section—eight measures and twice been President of the Society. She vibrato). long—states the main theme, agitato. recently completed 10 years as editor of the Divisi instruments are called for in the Four measures in unison are followed by ARS Members' Library Editions. She is a last two measures in the soprano and first four more in which the parts separate teacher/performer on recorders, piano, tenor parts. The great bass recorder could themselves from one another gradually, harpsichord, sackbut and viola da gamba. be omitted as it mostly doubles the bass, minimalist-style, in the notes but not the Prominent early music ensembles with although there are a couple of places rhythm. Ensemble difficulties are created which she has performed include the New where added rhythmic interest and the by the necessity of coordinating eighth- York Pro Musica, Musica Sacra, the Bach low bass notes make the piece just a little and 16th-note rests in exact homophony. Aria Group, and the Berkshire Bach Society. more attractive. A certain harmonic harshness that is Nice touches in this edition are a brief kept up throughout the piece becomes TWO MISSAE BREVES, BY ANTONIO biography of the composer, the addition of apparent with the juxtaposition of major LOTTI, TRANS. CHARLES NAGEL. Cheap the words, and suggestions for perform- and minor seconds, both vertically and Trills (TR 57), 2006 (Magnamusic). ance. As in all the pieces in this series, the horizontally. SATB or TTTB viols. Sc 8 pp, 6 pts, publisher gives permission to photocopy The second section—a short six 2 pp each. $8. parts for use by a larger ensemble. measures—introduces the second theme: MOTETS FOR FOUR VOICES, BY sustained notes in chords (major triads!) CHRISTOBÁL MORALES, TRANS. CHARLES that are then adulterated by the addition NAGEL, TEXT TRANSL. WILLIAM SCHOEDEL. Maute is probably in the of minor seconds. In the third, some anger Cheap Trills (TR 56), 2006 (Magnamusic). is introduced through the use of sputato SATB or TTTB viols. Sc 12 pp, 6 pts, very top tier of recorder tonguing, often on accented dis- 4 pp each. $7.75. sonances—seconds of all kinds, tritones, One of the great joys of playing performers of the day, but augmented unisons, sevenths—that recorder is the excitement that comes with amount to tone clusters. The piece con- making new discoveries in the diverse he is also an exceedingly tinues in sections of varying length, with repertoire for our instrument. These shorter sections at the end. Cheap Trills editions—by Antonio Lotti, a talented composer. The most intense section is the fifth, lesser-known German/Italian composer of where the dynamic level rises to subito f, the Baroque, and by the Spanish Christo- Matthias Maute’s Ten Times Tenor is a then ff, with fierce glissandos and unison bál Morales—offer us more opportunities beast of a very different hue. Composed high D in three of the 10 parts. The sixth to broaden our experience of early music. for the Manhattan Recorder Orchestra section, 22 measures long, begins subito p; Both of these editions include biogra- (of which, in the interest of full disclosure, the seventh is much calmer, without the phical information about the composers. I must declare myself a member), it is ded- main theme, which has been continuing In the Missae these notes are substantial, icated to its founder, Amanda Pond, and as an ostinato throughout—but with a whereas the Motets contain only a brief her husband Melvyn. Its first performance much slower quarter-note wavering that vita of Morales and, as well, translations was at the Recorder Festival Montréal flattens out as repeated notes. of the Latin texts. In both editions, texts at McGill University in September 2004. At the eighth section, the theme are found only in the soprano line. Maute is probably in the very top tier of suddenly appears in unison again, and in Though this is not an uncommon situa- recorder performers of the day, but he is the ninth the sustained-note theme turns tion in primary sources, an explanation also an exceedingly talented composer. up once more. The last section starts with would be welcome here. Ten Times Tenor is an intriguing piece, four 16th notes in unison—A–B –A–B The manuscript source of the Morales intended for a group of about 20 tenor again—and ends with a triumphal shout is not named, and there are no incipits recorders, or two on a part. It is in a from all 10 (or 20!) recorders playing that indicate original clefs, pitches (if distinctly modern idiom, although by no the high A–B –A–B motive three times in applicable) or mensuration signs. Such means avant garde. unison. information is of interest to experienced It is also quite fiendish to perform. The Although I have stated that the musicians, and including it adds to the main motive, revolving around the notes harmonies are sometimes harsh, even quality of the edition. A and B in both the middle and high ugly, the piece is very exciting and quite These publications share several layout
January 2008 41 features. The combinations of score according to the editor’s notes, contains These works are ethereal in the style of and parts are clearly-arranged and elements of both the Baroque and the Palestrina (Victoria’s teacher)—beautiful, performance-friendly. Each line of the Classical, thus forming a bridge between musically interesting and challenging to score is marked for recorders and/or viol. the two eras. play. All of the pieces are polyphonic, and Four of the six parts match the score Each of the Missae breves included in the degree of complexity is best suited to arrangement for recorder and/or viol, and this edition contains three movements: intermediate or advanced level players. there are two additional viol parts in C-3 Kyrie, Sanctus and Benedictus/Agnus Dei. However, with effective conducting and (alto) clef. This is a somewhat unusual division. pairing of beginners with experienced The parts are printed so that no page Liturgically, the Sanctus and Benedictus players, the mixed group that tried the turns are necessary. Rehearsal numbers are related, though composers often set music was able to sight-read it quite are given every five measures and are them as two separate parts. successfully. enclosed in a circle above the staff, making Rhythmically, these masses are closer The arrangement of the parts is typical them easy to locate quickly. to the homophony of the Classical era of Cheap Trills publications. They are nice- In the motets by Morales, which are than to the counterpoint of the Baroque, ly laid out in a double folded sheet format, longer, both sides of the two-page sheet but the melody does not attain the promi- with the hymn sections on one side and are utilized, thus minimizing the number nence of true Classical style. the mass selections on the other. Each part of pages. The cover designs consist of They are not difficult to play and are is marked for both recorder and viol, and unique symbolic collages compiled by the therefore perfectly suited to less experi- there are two additional viol parts in C-3 editor, with nicely matched fonts. enced groups. Though they are not stylis- (alto) clef. Rehearsal numbers are clearly Christobál Morales (c.1500-53) was tically intricate, they are musically appeal- marked. born in Spain and spent most of his life ing, especially the Mass in d minor. On the back cover, a brief history and there, with the exception of 10 years in Both the motets and the masses facsimile of the Ave Maris Stella chant which he was employed as a singer in the reviewed here are well-done editions of (four-line staff notation) is given, along Papal Chapel. He was the first Spanish music by lesser-known composers. They with a short biography of Victoria. There is composer to achieve international recog- would make nice additions to concert pro- no information on the editor, Nagel, which nition. grams, chapter meetings and workshops, would have been a welcome addition. As he was also a priest, his works are as well as for playing at places of worship. This edition does not include the orig- entirely vocal and sacred. They were inal source(s), clefs or mensuration known throughout Europe and also found signs—nor is there a complete text (with their way to Mexico. They include 22 Rhythmically, these translations) of the chant verses, and the surviving masses, over 100 motets, 18 masses are closer to musical genre (hymn) of the first two settings of the Magnificat, and at least the homophony of the selections is not identified. These hymns five settings of the Lamentations of are titled as Ave Maris Stella I, In festis de Jeremiah. Stylistically, they represent a Classical era than to Beata Virgine (even verses) and Ave Maris transition between the traditional Renais- the counterpoint of the Stella II, In festis de Beatae Mariae Virginis sance polyphony and the functional Baroque .... They are (odd verses). The relationship between harmony of the Baroque. the even and odd verse settings is The first of the three motets in the not difficult to play unexplained. Text appears only under the current edition, “Clementissime Christi and are therefore superius line in both, but it is incomplete. Confessor,” is primarily polyphonic with perfectly suited to less One verse is omitted from each. some homophonic interpolations. It is This lack of formal clarity, combined the most complex and most interesting, experienced groups. with an ambiguous time change in the odd and it is also the most difficult of the three. verse setting, creates a certain amount of The other two, “Regina Caeli Laetare” and SETTINGS BASED ON THE CHANT performance confusion. The absence of “Pastores, Dicite, Quidnam Vidistis?,” “AVE MARIS STELLA,” BY THOMÁS LUIS note value equivalences or original men- contain more homophonic sections and DE VICTORIA, ED. CHARLES NAGEL. Cheap suration signs for the time change from less intricate counterpoint. These three Trills TR 58. (Magnamusic), 2007. cut time to triple makes it difficult to motets present little difficulty for A(S)TTB or trTnTnB viols. Sc 14 pp, 6 pts determine the correct metrical relation- advanced players. They are also accessible 4 pp ea. $8.50. ship with any certainty. to those on the intermediate level, as The plainchant Ave Maris Stella cele- In addition, it is not possible to ascer- the lines and rhythms are not particularly brates Mary’s various roles as the Star of tain whether the hymns should be played convoluted. As is generally the case with the Sea, antithesis of Eve as per the independently, or by alternating in some Renaissance music, the greatest rhythmic anagram Ave/Eva, and intercessor with her way. No explanatory notes are given, and challenge lies in ensemble cohesion. divine Son. The chant was highly popular the arrangement itself does not really offer Antonio Lotti (1667-1740) was born as a basis for compositions from the any clues. in Germany but spent much of his life in Renaissance to modern times. Both hymns are set in modes begin- Venice, where he eventually attained the Charles Nagel’s transcription of select- ning on the note D, and each begins with coveted position of maestro di cappella ed settings of Ave Maris Stella by Thomás a statement of the first verse of the plain- at St. Marks. Lotti was highly regarded in Luis de Victoria contains two paired chant (unison at the octave in the even his time as a teacher and composer of hymns for the Divine Office, as well as the verses and polyphonic texture in the odd opera. He also wrote numerous motets, Kyrie and Gloria from his Missa Ave Maris verses). The only double bar lines appear cantatas, masses and oratorios. His style, Stella. after this segment and at the time change
42 American Recorder in the odd verse setting. This arrangement EIGHT 5-PART CONSORTS (C.1605), Although no date is known for his implies that the musical flow should be BY JOHN COPRARIO, ED. BERNARD THOMAS. passing, Coprario is mentioned as being uninterrupted. No explanatory notes are London Pro Musica Edition LPM EM 27, deceased in July of 1626. included, and the edition offers no other (Magnamusic), 2006. SATTB, Sc 24 pp, The eight untexted pieces published real clues. pts 8 pp. $14.50. here have Italian titles, suggesting that Further research after the playing ses- John Coprario occupies a place of they had origins as madrigals. Indeed, sion led me to a web site maintained by distinction in the musical life of early some sources refer to them as either Nancho Alvarez and devoted to this com- Jacobean England. His works are always “fantasias” or as “instrumental madri- poser:
January 2008 43 “Illicita cosa,” opens with the medius part CONSIDER ADVERTISING IN descending a diminished fifth. Several ______CLASSIFIED other pieces feature major seconds— ______not for the effect of a passing tone, but as ______a deliberate dissonance lasting one or two ______beats. Full page ...... $599 At various times during our reading of 2/3 page ...... $445 1/2 page ...... $366 this edition, we had to check the score to 1/3 page ...... $286 ensure that the notes coming out of our 1/4 page ...... $223 instruments were right. A couple of times Where the haves 1/6 page ...... $175 1/8 page ...... $127 of playing through the pieces reveals the and have-nots 1/12 page...... $ 95 genius of Coprario’s idiom and the origi- of the recorder world 1 column inch ...... $ 58 nality in his boldness. In fact, the lighter can find each other Prices include web site/e-mail link directly from tone and changing textures of these fan- your ad in AR On-line,
44 American Recorder